Life and Artistic Career
Hans Ticha was born in Děčín, Czech Republic. Following the Second World War, he was interned in a camp in Czechoslovakia with his mother and sister, where they were required to perform forced labor. After being expelled, they moved to the Soviet Occupation Zone. He attended school in Schkeuditz until completing his Abitur. From 1958 to 1962, he studied pedagogy at the Karl-Marx-Universität Leipzig. After working as a teacher for art education and history in Lindenthal near Leipzig, he studied painting and applied graphics at the Hochschule für bildende und angewandte Kunst Berlin-Weißensee.
Between 1970 and 1990, Ticha worked as a freelance painter and book illustrator in East Berlin, residing in the Prenzlauer Berg district. During this period, he was a member of the Verband Bildender Künstler der DDR from 1973 to 1990. He lived in Mainz from 1990 to 1993 and has resided in Maintal since 1993. His professional occupations include illustrator, graphic artist, and caricaturist.
Works and Illustrations
Ticha's artistic output encompasses posters, prints, paintings, objects, and drawings. He is noted for illustrating numerous book texts, including works by Bertolt Brecht, Karel Čapek, Maxim Gorki, Heinrich Heine, E. T. A. Hoffmann, Bohumil Hrabal, Ernst Jandl, Erich Kästner, Christian Morgenstern, Joachim Ringelnatz, William Makepeace Thackeray, and Kurt Tucholsky. He has designed more than 100 books, receiving the award for the most beautiful books of the DDR on multiple occasions.
His notable illustrations include:
His work is held in various collections, including the Städel Museum in Frankfurt. One of his oil paintings, Strandburg II, was sold at auction in 2026.
