How does cut paper become graphic design? Where does nature inspire design? In the exhibition ‘Scissors–Style–Paper,’ three years of graphic design students at the Lette Verein Berlin respond to historical paper cutouts by Johanna Beckmann (1868–1941) from the museum collections of the Kunstbibliothek. The focus is on plant images: they explore the interface between botany and graphic design, natural form and abstraction.
Image above: „Schere–Stil–Papier“, Keyvisual zur Ausstellung, 2025, erarbeitet im Fachbereich Kommunikationsdesign am Lette Verein, Foto: Lette Verein Berlin.
150 years ago, the foundation stone for the graphic design department was laid with the establishment of the Setzerinnenschule (school for female typesetters) at the Lette Verein Berlin. At that time, the Lette Verein was one of the few schools where women could train in creative professions. Johanna Beckmann was one of them. She had previously studied at the teaching institute of the Berlin School of Arts and Crafts, which later became today’s Art Library. Beckmann became known as a paper-cut artist, porcelain painter and author. More than 20 of her nature cuttings – delicate linear branches, blossoms and ears of corn with a subtle Art Nouveau touch – have been preserved in the Kunstbibliothek’s collection. Beckmann’s art, enlivened by the inspirational power and magic of nature, is characterised by clear forms, strong contrasts and a wealth of imagination.
By reducing images to positive and negative elements, paper cut-outs create contrasting forms that are particularly vivid in nature motifs. With the Lettegrafik exhibits, the exhibition explores this aesthetic principle in a variety of graphic media and analogue and digital techniques – from screen printing, cyanotype, typography and illustration to book design and moving images. It shows how a unique visual language emerges from the botanical encounter between cut and line, colour and surface, material and shadow, density and detail.
All contemporary exhibits, the corporate design and the exhibition design were created in the graphic design course at the Lette Verein Berlin. The approximately 60 historical paper cut-outs and books – by Johanna Beckmann and her predecessors in the 18th and 19th centuries – come from the Kunstbibliothek’s collection.
Admission is free for school pupils, students and trainees.
WHEN?
Exhibition dates: Friday, 23 January – Sunday, 1 March 2026
Opening: Thursday, 22 January 2026, 7 p.m.
Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 10 a.m. – 6 p.m.
WHERE?
Kulturforum Berlin, Kunstbibliothek
Johanna-und-Eduard-Arnhold-Platz / Matthäikirchplatz
10785 Berlin
