Guido Lengwiler
Hans Caspar Ulrich, die Seidenherren und Amerika
Wie der Siebdruck nach Europa kam
Book design: Guido Lengwiler
German, 324 pages, ca. 450 images and faksimiles, 24,3 × 30,9 cm, hardcover
Euro [D] 78.–, Euro [A] 80.20
Pre-order. Release date: June 2026
ISBN
978-3-03863-107-1
• Artist and entrepreneur Hans Caspar Ulrich introduced silk-screen printing to Europe: a special Swiss life-history in the world of textiles and industry
• Lavishly illustrated, with facsimiles from Ulrich’s notebooks on the silk-screen printing technique
In this impactful work, Guido Lengwiler has recreated the events of more than a century ago, describing European efforts to establish a revolutionary printing technique that would have a formative influence on twentieth-century imagery in advertising and art – and that remains essential in technical applications today.
After first attending the school of applied arts, Hans Caspar Ulrich completed an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Karlsruhe, and also worked for most of his life, with a greater or lesser degree of success, in the fine arts. But thanks to his expertise in printing techniques and his family connection to one of the Silk Lords of Zurich, Theodor Pestalozzi, his life took an interesting turn – and he introduced silk-screen printing to Europe.
Originally exported for use in flour sieves, sales in the United States began to soar at the beginning of the twentieth century, where the new silk-screen printing technique was just emerging. Totally surprised by this new application, silk producers in Zurich invested large sums of money: on the one hand to send Ulrich to the United States for three months in 1927 in order to learn this new technique and, on the other, to establish screen printing in Europe too as well as to work on patents and licensing.
Luckily, Ulrich’s forgotten memoirs have survived. For the first time, the book publishes historical documents dating as far back as the origins of screen printing, which will equally enable further research.
• Lavishly illustrated, with facsimiles from Ulrich’s notebooks on the silk-screen printing technique
• Never-before-published historical documents
This book recounts the life-story of Zurich artist Hans Caspar Ulrich (1880–1950), who left behind a pioneering work on the origins and dissemination of silk-screen printing in Continental Europe.
In this impactful work, Guido Lengwiler has recreated the events of more than a century ago, describing European efforts to establish a revolutionary printing technique that would have a formative influence on twentieth-century imagery in advertising and art – and that remains essential in technical applications today.
After first attending the school of applied arts, Hans Caspar Ulrich completed an apprenticeship as a lithographer in Karlsruhe, and also worked for most of his life, with a greater or lesser degree of success, in the fine arts. But thanks to his expertise in printing techniques and his family connection to one of the Silk Lords of Zurich, Theodor Pestalozzi, his life took an interesting turn – and he introduced silk-screen printing to Europe.
Originally exported for use in flour sieves, sales in the United States began to soar at the beginning of the twentieth century, where the new silk-screen printing technique was just emerging. Totally surprised by this new application, silk producers in Zurich invested large sums of money: on the one hand to send Ulrich to the United States for three months in 1927 in order to learn this new technique and, on the other, to establish screen printing in Europe too as well as to work on patents and licensing.
Luckily, Ulrich’s forgotten memoirs have survived. For the first time, the book publishes historical documents dating as far back as the origins of screen printing, which will equally enable further research.
About the author
Guido Lengwiler, born in 1960, has been working with screen printing since 1978. The same year, he attended the school of applied arts in Zurich, joining Franz Fedier’s specialised course in painting in Basel two years later. Subsequently serving an apprenticeship as a screen printer, Lengwiler was employed in this profession for several more years.
At the same time, he was a teacher at a vocational school and taught screen printing courses at the schools of design in Zurich and Bern.
Today he uses screen printing for artistic purposes in his own studio. Lengwiler is author of the standard work Die Geschichte des Siebdrucks. Zur Entstehung des vierten Druckverfahrens, 2013, published in the United States as A History of Screen Printing: How an Art Evolved into an Industry.
At the same time, he was a teacher at a vocational school and taught screen printing courses at the schools of design in Zurich and Bern.
Today he uses screen printing for artistic purposes in his own studio. Lengwiler is author of the standard work Die Geschichte des Siebdrucks. Zur Entstehung des vierten Druckverfahrens, 2013, published in the United States as A History of Screen Printing: How an Art Evolved into an Industry.
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