Söre Popitz

Irmgard Sörensen was born on July 3, 1896 in Kiel.

She began painting at an early age, encouraged by her grandmother. In her teenage years, Sörensen continued to pursue visual arts, going on to attend the craft college in Kiel.[1]

In 1917 she matriculated at the Hochschule für Grafik und Buchkunst Leipzig, where she studied graphic arts, drafting, and advertising.[1] After receiving her diploma in 1924, Sörensen married Friedrich Popitz, a physician.[2]

In October 1924, Sörensen-Popitz enrolled in the Bauhaus Weimar. In her first semester, Söre Popitz attended a first year course covering design foundations taught by Moholy-Nagy, Wassily Kandinsky, and Josef Albers. Her other mentors at the school included Jan Tschichold and Paul Klee.[2][1]

After just a semester at the school, Söre Popitz left the Bauhaus, entering the workforce as a designer in Leipzig instead.[2]

Her early departure from the Bauhaus is sometimes cited as a reason she emerged as a graphic designer while other female students did not; while the Bauhaus Weimar had begun to accept female designers, women were frequently encouraged to go into weaving and textile design as opposed to the male dominated fields of architecture and graphic arts.[1]

From her departure from the Bauhaus until after the war, Söre Popitz was frequently employed by Otto Beyer, a publishing house in Leipzig.

The majority of Söre Popitz's Bauhaus-era work and work produced for Otto Beyer were destroyed in the bombing of Leipzig during World War II.[1]

Söre Popitz and her husband moved to Frankfurt following the Soviet occupation of East Germany. Friedrich died in 1949, just a few months after the couple's relocation.[1]

In mid 1950s, Popitz returned to painting, abandoning the Constructivism that had characterized her pre-war designs for Informalism.[2]

Irmgard Sörensen-Popitz died in 1993.

• Ivana Tomljenović-Meller