LATER LIFE

In 1929 Schawinsky went to Magdeburg, hired by Johannes Göderitz to head the graphic department of the municipal building authority. During this time he became picture editor of the theatre newspaper Das Stichwort. Due to political and Antisemitic hostility, Schawinsky left Magdeburg at the end of 1931 and moved to Berlin as a freelance artist. With the rise of Hitler and the Nazi party, Schawinsky emigrated to Italy, where he resumed painting in Rapallo. Working at Olivetti he co-designed a new semi-professional typewriter, the Olivetti Studio 42. Schawinsky also consulted for architects Fingini & Pollini on the design, who at the time built the new headquarters for Olivetti.

Schawinsky was invited to Black Mountain College in the US in 1936 by Josef Albers and the Museum of Modern Art in New York exhibited his work. Schawinsky designed the North Carolina Pavilion at the 1939 New York World’s Fair and, with Breuer and Gropius, the Pennsylvania Pavilion. In 1941 he moved to New York, teaching at the City College of New York from 1943 to 1946 and at New York University from 1950 to 1954.

From 1961 Schawinsky travelled for longer periods to Europe, building a second home in Oggebbio on Lake Maggiore and also exhibited in Germany. In 1971, the Museum of Modern Art presented a film about Schawinsky and his work in New York. In 1981, Hans Heinz Holz published a monograph.[2]

In 1936, Schawinsky married Irene von Debschitz (19031990), the daughter of Wanda von Debschitz-Kunowski, and their son Ben was born in 1939. In 1963 he married Gisela Hatzky, and their son Daniel was born in 1973.

Schawinsky died on September 11, 1979 in Locarno, Switzerland.