Hans Maierhofer’s article

Hans Maierhofer’s article

St. Petersburg and Gothic script

The largest event in the world of calligraphy took place in St. Petersburg from 16th to 22nd of September 2008.

The event was organized and conducted under the guidance of Alexey Shaburov, Director General of MVK International Exhibition Company and head of the Contemporary Museum of Calligraphy, Moscow.

The exhibition displayed works of 72 calligraphers from all over the world. Visitors had a chance either to touch the world of calligraphy forms, or listen to the reports and presentations.

Hans Maierhofer, calligrapher from Regensburg, in his report highlighted the development of gothic script and introduced to the viewers the Gothic alphabet.

The experiment showed that the broken letters distinguished the «German forms» and from the ornamental point of view they can be used successfully for the Cyrillic alphabet.

The exhibition gave an opportunity to present a specific path of German calligraphy: cultural meetings, dating, and events took place every day.

Language of the form is very important in calligraphy, it is an international language that can be taken by eyes and heart, even without knowledge of a country’s speech.

Professionals exchanged their opinions and shared experiences. A week of awareness that people are not to be separated took place this week as well.

Hans Maierhofer,
for Die Deutsche Schrift magazine