Karel Martens Unbound(2025)

The Stedelijk presents the first major retrospective of Karel Martens (1939), one of the Netherlands’ most influential post-war graphic designers, renowned for his inventiveness, and for his playful and experimental approach. Karel Martens trained and inspired younger generations of designers in the Netherlands and internationally. The exhibition is a journey of discovery through the oeuvre that Martens created over 65 years—from his adventurous lettering on buildings, to books, typography, postage stamps, telephone cards, and wallpaper. In this short film, you see Karel Martens at work in his studio, and former students share the most important lessons they learned from him.