Armin Landeck

Armin Landeck was born in Crandon, Wisconsin, on June 4, 1905.  He studied first at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor before entering Columbia University in New York City where he received a Bachelor of Architecture degree in 1927. 

In 1928 he and his wife traveled and studied art in Europe, returning after the stock market collapsed in 1929. Although he became interested in printmaking in 1927, it was while he was in Europe that he produced his first large body of prints. Unable to find work as an architect upon his return, he turned his attention to printmaking, producing a remarkable body of work over the following 60 years. During the early 1930’s Landeck became friends with Martin Lewis and in 1934 opened The School for Printmakers with Martin Lewis and the lithographic printer, George Miller. Unfortunately, the school closed in early 1935, a victim of the depression.  Landeck met Stanley William Hayter in the 1940s and began to work at Atelier 17 where he made his first engraving.

Landeck was a member of and exhibited with the Society of American Etchers and the Society of American Graphic Artists. He was elected an Academician in the National Academy of Design and was a member of the Institute of Arts and Letters, and the Institute of the American Academy. Landeck received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953.