International New Titles Spring 2023 Scheidegger & Spiess Art I Photography I Architecture
4–5 Wolfgang Beltracchi 6–7 Werner Bischof Content 30–31 Key Titles 32 Contacts Distributors Representatives and Agents 3 Taking Measures 8–9 In the Summer of 2009 10–11 HR Giger 12–13 Yao Jui-chung 14–15 Marguerite Saegesser 18–19 Urban Change Over Time 20–21 Maillol—A Different View 22–23 Rochus Lussi—Thin Skin 24–25 Theo Gerber 26–27 Léopold et Aurèle Robert 28–29 Hedi Mertens 16–17 Le tremblement des certitudes
Edited by Fabienne Liptay in collaboration with Carla Gabrí and Laura Walde
Book design by Studio Marie Lusa und Alberto Malossi
In cooperation with Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, and the Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich
Hardback approx. 320 pages, 160 color and 20 b/w illustrations 17 × 23 cm 978-3-85881-888-1 English sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 45.00 | $ 50.00
APRIL 2023 (Europe) JULY 2023 (US)
Taking Measures
Usages of Formats in Film and Video Art
A reader on film and video as measuring devices to test the effectiveness of art in public space
Essays by renowned scholars and researchers explore a wide range of questions about political possibilities and means of artistic practice
Richly illustrated, the book addresses issues of measures and formats in both content and design
The book’s title—Taking Measures —has a double meaning: as a reference to the practices of measurement and to the political potential of power and resistance. Throughout their history to today, film and video have served as measuring devices for scientific, economic, political, and other purposes, and have been employed in a variety of fields beyond art. In acknowledging these uses also lies the opportunity for art to test its own effectiveness in public space and to uncover potential for resistance in artistic action.
This book—which has evolved from a series of dialogues between artists and researchers as part of the research project Exhibiting Film: Challenges of Format at the University of Zurich—addresses issues of measures and formats in both content and design. In which practices of measurement, of the production of knowledge and evidence in the interest of useful research, are film and video involved? In what way can artistic practice not only make these involvements visible but challenge and test them? How can technologies of measurement in art be used politically and be made operative for the public sector? How can formats themselves, as the measures of art, be exhibited? How can they be put in relation to exhibition spaces and their economies of valorization, and how can this relationship be assessed? These questions are explored in illuminating and richly illustrated essays.
Fabienne Liptay is a professor of film studies at the University of Zurich, where she directed the research project Exhibiting Film: Challenges of Format.
Carla Gabrí and Laura Walde were members of the research project Exhibiting Film: Challenges of Format as PhD students at the Department of Film Studies, University of Zurich.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
3
Film and video as devices to test art’s effectiveness in public space
9 783858818881 ISBN 9783858818881
New works by painter and former art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi alongside texts by distinguished authors
With texts by
Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht
literary theorist, writer, and Stanford University professor emeritus
Peter Sloterdijk German philosopher and cultural theorist Markus Gabriel German philosopher and author
Ulrike Posche German journalist and writer Alberto Venzago Swiss photographer
Leonhard Fischer German finance executive Hansen Wang Swiss-based crypto currency and NFT expert
Guido Persterer Swiss art dealer René Scheu Swiss writer and philosopher
Also available:
Jeannette Fischer
Psychoanalyst meets Helene and Wolfgang Beltracchi
Artist Couple Meets Jeannette Fischer
ISBN 978-3-03942-071-1
ISBN 978-3-03942-070-4 9 783039420711
978-3-03942-071-1 English 978-3-03942-070-4 German sFr. 25.00 | € 19.00 | £ 20.00 | $ 25.00 English German 9 783039420704
Edited by Alberto Venzago Book design by dear robinson
Hardback
approx. 256 pages, 200 color and 44 b/w illustrations 24 × 32 cm
978-3-03942-142-8 English 978-3-03942-138-1 German
sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 42.00 | $ 50.00
MAY 2023 (Europe)
SEPTEMBER 2023 (US)
ISBN 9783039421428
English German
9 783039421381
Wolfgang Beltracchi
The Return of Salvator Mundi
New, large-format book on the latest work of Wolfgang Beltracchi, painter and legendary art forger Features previously unpublished photographs from Beltracchi’s studio by internationally renowned Swiss photographer Alberto Venzago
Documents Beltracchi’s extensive collection The Greats, parts of which are traded as digital nonfungible tokens (NFT)
With new original contributions by distinguished authors such as Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, Peter Sloterdijk, Markus Gabriel, and others
In recent years, painter and legendary art forger Wolfgang Beltracchi has opened a new chapter of his career. The core of his latest work is an extensive series of paintings, titled The Greats, that have been put on sale as digital artworks using NFT technology. Its starting point was the Salvator Mundi, a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci and sold in 2017 in an auction at Christie’s in New York for $450 m to an unknown buyer. Beltracchi studied the picture meticulously and created several hundred versions of the motif in a variety of styles, ranging from high renaissance to pop art, or depicting Jesus in the personification of Mick Jagger or Mao Zedong. The result is a fascinating game of deception with the disputed painting and its symbolism. This large format book combines photographic insights into Beltracchi’s everyday life in the studio by renowned Swiss photographer Alberto Venzago with a documentation of The Greats collection. Texts are contributed by Stanford University professor emeritus Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, German philosophers Peter Sloterdijk and Markus Gabriel, German journalist Ulrike Posche, German finance executive Leonhard Fischer, Swissbased cryptocurrency and NFT expert Hansen Wang, Swiss art dealer Guido Persterer, and Alberto Venzago. A conversation between Beltracchi and Swiss writer and philosopher René Scheu rounds out this volume that describes and interprets the phenomenon of this extraordinary artist from a range of perspectives.
Alberto Venzago is a Swiss photographer, photojournalist, and filmmaker. He has been awarded numerous international prizes, such as the ICP Award, the United Nations Award, the New York Film Festival Award, the Spotlight Award, and others.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring
ISBN 9783039421381 9 783039421428 2023 5
The early work of Swiss Magnum photographer Werner Bischof: fashion photography and reportage in color
4 4
Edited by Ludovica Introini and Francesca Bernasconi
Book design by Granit Communication, Design
In cooperation with MASI Lugano and Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur
Hardback approx. 180 pages, 102 color illustrations 21 × 24 cm
978-3-03942-130-5 English 978-3-03942-129-9 German
sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 42.00 | $ 50.00
MARCH 2023 (Europe) JULY 2023 (US)
Italian edition is published by Edizioni Casagrande, Bellinzona, Switzerland
ISBN 9783039421305
Features for the first time ever some 100 previously unpublished early color images by distinguished Swiss Magnum photographer, Werner Bischof (1916–54)
Offers insights into the elaborate technology and use of the Devin Tricolor color-separation camera
Exhibition: Werner Bischof—Unseen Colour at MASI Lugano (February 12 to May 29, 2023) and at Fotostiftung Schweiz, Winterthur (August 26, 2023 to January 21, 2024)
ISBN 9783039421299 9 783039421305
English German
9 783039421299
Werner Bischof
Unseen Colour
Swiss photographer Werner Bischof (1916–54) is best known for his impressive blacka ndwhite images, most of which were taken on expeditions as a reporter in postwar Europe and during the Indochina War (1946–54), and on his travels in the Far East and South America. Far too little known are Bischof’s early color photographs, comprising studio work in fashion and advertising photography as well as reportage from war damaged European cities. For these, Bischof used various types of camera, including a Devin Tricolor. This elaborate color separation device exposed three monochrome plates in a single exposure, each of them equipped with a color filter so that a true color print was subsequently made by addition of the three monochrome negatives. Some 200 of Bischof’s Devin Tricolor negatives have been restored and a selection of them is published for the first time ever in this book. The beautifully illustrated volume is fascinating not only from a photo h istorical perspective. Even these early color images reveal Bischof’s outstanding, sensitive aesthetic that characterizes his entire oeuvre. Some 100 color plates are supplemented with texts by Clara Bouveresse, the French photography historian, Peter Pfrunder, the director of the Fotostiftung Schweiz in Winterthur, and Luc Debraine, the director of the Swiss Camera Museum in Vevey.
Ludovica Introini is an art historian working at MASI Lugano’s exhibition office.
Francesca Bernasconi is an art historian and head of MASI Lugano’s exhibition office.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
7
The entertaining album of a journey with design objects by Italian architect and designer Matteo Thun
49 130 131 92
Edited by Susanne Thun
Book design by Studio Marie Lusa
Hardback
approx. 136 pages, 89 color illustrations 20.5 × 28 cm 978-3-03942-137-4 English
sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 42.00 | $ 50.00
MARCH 2023 (Europe) JULY 2023 (US)
ISBN 9783039421374
9 783039421374
Walter Pfeiffer, Matteo Thun
In the Summer of 2009
An extraordinary and entertaining visual travelogue that celebrates some fifty design objects and interiors by distinguished Italian designer and architect Matteo Thun
Tells the story of a joyful encounter of two then teenage boys with the oeuvre of their famous father Features a previously unpublished series by celebrated Swiss photographer Walter Pfeiffer
Photographs by Walter Pfeiffer, Design by Matteo Thun
A humorous tribute to Matteo Thun, one of Italy’s most distinguished designers and architects, and his work. In the summer of 2009, Swiss photographer Walter Pfeiffer made an extensive trip from Zurich to the Italian island of Capri, taking shots of some fifty of Thun’s design objects en route. Yet, rather than doing a mere documentation of these items, Pfeiffer created highly lively “tableaux vivants.” The artist was accompanied on his journey by Thun’s two then teenage sons, who thus form the main visual narrative of the book and appear in many pictures together with their father’s creations. A brief introduction by Matteo Thun’s wife Susanne and an index of the depicted design gems round out this extraordinary and entertaining visual travelogue.
Walter Pfeiffer, born in 1946, is a Swiss graphic designer and photographer. His work became known to a wider audience from the early 2000s through contributions to international magazines such as i-D and Vogue.
Matteo Thun, born in 1952, cofounded the worldrenowned Memphis Group in 1981 and established his own studio in Milan in 1984. He has been awarded numerous international prizes for his architectural and product designs.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
9
The multifaceted, always surprising early work of Swiss artist and designer HR Giger
HR GIGER im Verlag Scheidegger & Spiess fragments: stairways leading to infinity, impassable drawbridges, torture machines, and dungeons. The Carceri provoke feeling of claustrophobia and feature gloomy accoutrements of the kind Giger used in his first pen-and-ink drawings, the Schächte (Shaft) pictures, especially in Schacht VI and VII (cat. nos. 32, 33). Made up of delusions and nightmares (sleepwalking, stairways, labyrinths), these pictures represent a journey through the inner self, through underground hallways and corridors that open onto gloomy and unsettling chambers and are sometimes inhabited by ghost-like beings. But Giger continues descending, down to the organic bone architecture of hell, as we see in his Passagen-Tempel (Passages Temples, cat. no. 85) series, where he populates intrauterine landscapes (corresponding to his horror vision of birth) with dead and mutilated figures. This is primal fear, prenatal terror, for birth represents one of the most traumatic of human experiences. Giger delves deeper into the events that precede our arrival in the world and in the process goes one step further than the surrealists, who tended to restrict themselves to childhood experiences. His depictions of fetuses, birth machines, and views of the inside of the womb evoke a disturbing symbolism. Cat. no. IV: Giovanni Battista Piranesi, The Drawbridge, Carceri d’invenzione, plate VII, 1741–49, 1761–65 Aquatint on paper, 56.1 Cat. no. 33: HR Giger, (Shaft VII), 1966 India ink on transcop on wood, 63 80 cm Giger_024a037_e_Arenas gs 4-06-2007 18:32 Pagina 28 Francisco José de Goya Giger’s interest in folk mythology and superstition (as well as magic, witchcraft, and occultism) allows us to connect the satanic pictures among his work with another artist who also showed great interest in this theme, namely, Francisco José de Goya (1746–1828). Goya turned his attention to folk culture and reworked the medieval myths in his later paintings, such as the Aquelarre (Witches’ Sabbath). In this representation of a gathering of witches around the figure of the devil (personified as a he-goat) he amplified the shock effect by deforming the faces. Giger revived and renewed this theme between 1975 and 1977, the highpoint of his airbrush phase. He used the airbrush in his own idiosyncratic manner, spraying directly onto the paper, kind of écriture automatique that allowed him analogously to the surrealist method to realize his visions and ideas immediately and directly. He developed this technique in the monochrome experiments of the Aleph (cat. no. 65) and other works through to its climax, the “satanic paintings” of large figures such as Satan and Lilith, in which the demonic predominates. Giger’s satanic symbolism shows itself to be strongly influenced by the esoteric writings of Eliphas Lévi, Gustav Meyrink, and Francisco José de Goya, (Witches’ Sabbath), 1797–98 Museo Lázaro Galdiano, Madrid Acrylic on oil paper on wood, 200 140 cm Giger_024a037_e_Arenas gs 4-06-2007 18:32 Pagina 29 Blutuhr mit Wachskopf, 1967 Polyester, metal, and red color, 80 32 32 cm Giger_054a069_e_Bildteil gs 4-06-2007 19:04 Pagina 64 Kofferbaby, 1967 Bronze, black paint, and gilt, 50 75 20 cm 42 Beggar Bronze, 58 Giger_054a069_e_Bildteil gs 4-06-2007 19:04 Pagina 65 Li II, Giger_104a126_e_Bildteil gs 4-06-2007 18:20 Pagina 126 KATHLEEN BÜHLER PORTRAIT OF AN IMMORTAL LOVE: THE PAINTING LI II When in 1973 Hansruedi Giger began painting the portrait of Li Tobler, his partner at the time, he rather perplexingly portrayed her attractive face as a decapitated head. His picture, which was created two years before her violent suicide, prophetically seems to anticipate this later, tragic event. Despite these somber circumstances, the portrait is one of the most frequently reproduced works from Giger’s oeuvre. The artist does not just break with the conventions of traditional portrait painting that require a painted likeness to immortalize the subject by depicting him or her as a living being. His depiction of Li Tobler also very much represents the embodiment of his ideal woman. Nowhere else does he so expressly preserve her as one of the undead for posterity, even though he counterbalances signs of life with indications of death in her portrait. This unsettling connection between Eros and Thanatos raises questions about the artistic and cultural paradigms that might have influenced his work, as well as about the role the subject played in Giger’s life. Fateful Encounter The artist repeatedly produced brochures, exhibition posters, exhibition catalogues, and invitations modeled on the portrait Li II (cat. no. 83; 1973–74), a large-format acrylic that he painted as an homage to his partner Li Tobler (1948–75). His almost obsessive use of the image is evidence of its great significance in his oeuvre and also reveals deep connection with the person depicted. Along with the record cover for the rock group Blondie showing the face of Debbie Harry (1981), the painted-over photograph of Friedrich Kuhn (1973), a portrait of Sergius Golowin (1977), and other commissioned work, it is one of the few portraits of Giger’s. At the same time, with its high cheekbones, wide-set, almondshaped eyes, and delicate features, it became a prototype for practically all women’s faces that he subsequently portrayed. The artist met the budding actress in Zürich in 1966 when she was taking lessons at the studio theater with Felix Rellstab, the founding director of the Neumarkt theater. Li Tobler was active at a time in the history of Zürich theater that was marked by tension and sense of new beginnings. Felix Rellstab was a politically astute and bold director who made auGiger_127a140_e_Bühler gs 4-06-2007 18:21 Pagina 127
Edited by Beat Stutzer Book design by Guido Widmer
Paperback approx. 168 pages, 106 color and 28 b/w illustrations 20 × 26.5 cm
978-3-03942-136-7 English
sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 42.00 | $ 50.00
MAY 2023 (Europe)
SEPTEMBER 2023 (US)
HR Giger
The Oeuvre Before Alien 1961–1976
New edition of the only book published to date on the multifaceted early work of celebrated Swiss artist and designer HR Giger (1940–2014)
Features numerous works by HR Giger that have rarely been published or put on public display
Highlights relations of HR Giger’s art to that of distinguished precursors, such as Piranesi, Goya, Fuseli, Klinger, and Ensor
HR Giger (1940–2014) remains one of the outstanding figures in Swiss art and design history. He achieved international fame in 1979 for designing the fantastic creatures and eerie environments that terrified moviegoers in Ridley Scott’s science fiction film Alien. Yet, before these iconic creations made him a celebrity and won him an Academy Award for visual effects, Giger was already highly regarded in the international art world of the 1960s and 1970s, for taking one of the most independent positions in the succession of Surrealism.
First published in 2007, this only book to date on HR Giger’s early work features a comprehensive collection of his drawings, early airbrush paintings, and designs for oppressive environments. It examines Giger’s art from its origins and places it in an art history of horror. Most of the works shown in this volume are only rarely on public display. Here they are presented in dialogue with works by distinguished precursors such as Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Francisco de Goya, Henry Fuseli, Max Klinger, and James Ensor.
Beat Stutzer is a Lucerne based art historian, writer, and curator. He served as director of the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur from 1982–2011 and as curator of the Segantini Museum in St. Moritz from 1998–2016.
Spring 2023 11 Also available: HR Giger by Camille Vivier 978-3-03942-116-9 English / German sFr. 99.00 | € 97.00 | £ 85.00 | $ 110.00 9 783039421169 ISBN 978-3-03942-116-9 9 783039421367 ISBN 9783039421367
Scheidegger & Spiess
Yao Jui-chung: one of Taiwan’s most internationally acclaimed contemporary artists
Haw Par Villa, Singapore Chaofeng Temple, Mt. Dagang, Alian Dist., Kaohsiung City
Born in Taipei in 1969, Yao Jui-chung (姚瑞中) emerged as an artist during transformative period. Globalisation and the proliferation of new digital technologies were profoundly and irrevocably altering our understanding of the world, and sense of place within it. Signalling the end of totalitarianism and the Cold War, mass demonstrations calling for democratic reform spread across East Asia, Eastern Europe, and Latin America. In Taiwan, martial law, enforced for 38 consecutive years, was terminated in July 1987. Restrictions on political opposition parties, the mass media, and travel between Taiwan and China were relaxed, and the island’s first Taiwan-born and popularly elected President, Lee Teng-hui, came to power. These events symbolised Taiwan’s transition from Chinese authoritarian one-party state into a Taiwanese democratic and pluralistic society embracing freedom of expression, self-determination and individualism. For Yao and his generation, generally referred to as the ‘post-martial law generation’, globalisation and democratisation delivered a plethora of new opportunities as well as challenges. After the lifting of martial law, this generation had unprecedented access to information, resources and networks that were previously unavailable or censored. Opportunities to travel and exhibit overseas, including in China, increased rapidly with the global rise of contemporary Asian art and cross-Strait travel and exchange. Recognising that traditional forms and methods of visual expression were outmoded, Yao and his peers began searching for more innovative and pluralistic forms of expression that would more closely reflect and directly respond to the realities of life in this was first introduced to Yao Jui-chung and his work in Taipei when he was embarking on an artistic career while completing mandatory military service. We met in 1994 at IT Park gallery, the first alternative, artist-run space in Taiwan that focused on contemporary art, and where Yao held his first solo exhibition. Entitled Territory Takeover the exhibition comprised a series of sepia-stained blackand-white photographs depicting the artist, fully naked, urinating on historically significant sites where successive foreign imperial powers had landed in Taiwan. The installation, which discuss below, was bold, provocative and thought-provoking, and it was the first of series of works the artist produced exploring what he describes as ‘the historical destiny of humanity… (and its) incurable absurdity’. Yao Jui-chung’s art practice spans photography, painting, drawing, video, performance and installation art, and since we first met he has become internationally renowned. He has represented Taiwan in major biennials around the world, including in Venice, Yokohama, Shanghai, and his work has featured in several exhibitions have curated that toured Australia and New Zealand. Yet, despite his international standing, in-depth scholarship on Yao’s art practice is limited, especially in the English language. Considering the vast body of work Yao has produced over these three decades, and constraints of REAL FICTIONS: THE ART OF YAO JUI-CHUNG Dr. Sophie McIntyre made me both suspicious and curious about my own origins, of which I was completely ignorant.19 1996, after restrictions on travel to China were lifted, Yao visited this country for the first time. He wanted to experience it first-hand and meet his step-siblings from his father’s first family. He discovered, however, that the mythical and nostalgic stories about the so-called ‘Motherland’ that his teachers and father had related to him as a child, did not correspond with China’s present-day realities. Reflecting on his visit, Yao remarks: When I go to China find there is no connection – [it] is just based on memory. [In the 1990s] our economy was very strong and it was before China really opened up […] When we go to China, they think we are a rich man and they will rob you. Even if we speak the same language and have a similar lifestyle, you know, we are not really Chinese people […] was a tourist. I never touched the land even though it’s the Motherland. I go everywhere, but I never land there. don’t have too much feeling – even though my father came from China. wanted to see ROAMING AROUND THE RUINS: GODS & IDOLS SURROUND THE BORDER, 1998 44 WONDERFUL, 2007 HOME VIDEO PARTY REPUBLIC OF THE CYNIC: 1989 2020
Edited and with an essay by Sophie McIntyre
With a conversation between Yao Jui-chung and Hou Hanru
Book design by Sabine Hahn
Hardback
approx. 208 pages, 191 color and 27 b/w illustrations 30 × 24 cm
978-3-03942-135-0 English
sFr. 59.00 | € 58.00 | £ 55.00 | $ 65.00
APRIL 2023 (Europe)
AUGUST 2023 (US)
ISBN 9783039421350
9 783039421350
Yao Jui-chung
The first comprehensive monograph on Taiwanese contemporary artist Yao Jui-chung published outside Taiwan
Yao is one of Taiwan’s most internationally acclaimed, imaginative, and politically engaged contemporary artists
Yao’s work reflects great political and social commitment and is characterized by its incisive and humorous critique of Taiwan’s history and identity
Taiwanese contemporary artist Yao Jui chung has gained international renown for his imaginative, bold and incisive, and often humorous critiques of his country’s complex and contested identity and history. Born in 1969, Yao grew up during a tumultuous period, when Taiwan transformed from authoritarianism to democracy. His art, which comprises photography, video, installation, and painting, draws inspiration from history, politics, and society, and from China’s and Taiwan’s ancient artistic and religious traditions and mythical worlds. As well as being an artist, Yao also works as a curator and writer and has published several books on Taiwanese art. This monograph is the first ever comprehensive study of Yao Jui chung’s work in English, examining his practice over the past three decades. Featuring more than 200 images, it offers an essay by scholar, curator and Taiwan art specialist Sophie McIntyre and an in depth interview with the artist by Hou Hanru, the artistic director of Rome’s MAXXI. The book will appeal to specialists, collectors, and students of art, as well as scholars and students in Taiwan and China studies, politics, and history.
Sophie McIntyre is an academic at Queensland University of Technology in Brisbane and a curator and writer specializing in Asian art, especially from Taiwan. She has curated numerous international exhibitions and published extensively on Taiwanese art.
13
Scheidegger
& Spiess Spring 2023
The monotype is a print and one-of-a-kind at the same time— Marguerite Saegesser was a master of this technique 38 39 52 53 sie ihre Skulpturen. Zurück in der Schweiz lernte Saegesser anlässlich seiner Ausstellung in der Galerie Kornfeld in Bern den damals aufstrebenden amerikanischen Künstler Sam Francis 1923 1994 kennen, mit dem sie sich später in Palo Alto anfreunden wird. Im Winter 1952 nahm sie erstmals mit einem Werk an der «Weihnachtsausstellung bernischer Maler und Bildhauer» teil; als Frau war siegewissermassen zu Gast und durfte nur zwei Werke einreichen, die Jury liess eines davon, gemäss Katalog eine Bronze mit dem Titel «Figur», für die Ausstellung zu. Mit Beginn der 1950er-Jahre entfaltete Saegesser nach und nach ihre eigene formale Sprache. Ihre Figuren längten sich allmählich Abb. 3 und 4den leichter und dynamischer, bis hin zur schmalen, dreidimensionalen Linie. In diese Schaffensphasee fällt der «Goalie», eine Skulptur, die dem Berner Fussballclub BSC Young Boys von Max Saegesser geschenkt wurde Abb. XX, S. XX und heute auch vor dem neuen Wankdorf-Stadion wieder ihren Platz findet. Als «plastische Zeichen» bezeichnete ein Kunstkritiker 1957 jene jüngsten Werke Abb. 5 anlässlich Saegessers erster Ausstellung in Deutschland in der Münchner Galerie von Wolfgang Gurlitt. Die gotische Körperlichkeit eines knienden weiblichen Torsos [lässt] an Wilhelm Lehmbrucks Der Gestürzte denken. [1] Ein anderer Rezensent verglich sie mit den «dünnfadigen, langgestreckten Menschen des Schweizer Bildhauers Giacometti». 2 Im Gegensatz zu Alberto Giacometti 1901–1966 ist für Saegesser jedoch die Bewegtheit der Figuren sowie der Raum, den sie dadurch einnehmen und definieren, wesentlich. Insgesamt wurde die Ausstellung in dieser traditionsreichen Galerie viel besprochen und gut aufgenommen. Saegesser hatte sich damit eine solide Basis für ihre weitere Karriere geschaffen. Fünf Jahre später, 1962 an der dritten Bieler Skulpturenausstellung «Plastik im Freien», zeigte sich die Künstlerin von einer vollkommen anderen Seite. Sie präsentierte nun eine abstrakte Eisenplastik, die mit der menschlichen Figur nur noch insofern in Zusammenhang zu bringen war, als dass sie sie mit einer Höhe von 210 cm deutlich überragte (Abb. 6). Während die Arbeiten dieser Werkgruppe formal an konstruktivistische Vorbilder gemahnten, zeigten sich die drei Eisenplastiken, die sie in der folgenden Austragung der Bieler Plastikausstellung 1966 vorstellte, inspiriert von der Plastik des Informel äusserst zeitgemäss. Sie waren aus in die Höhe ragenden Dreiecksformen grob zusammengeschweisst. An den Kanten blieben die unregelmässigen Schweissnähte gewollt deutlich sichtbar. Auch hier, wie zuvor schon vom Rezensenten der Ausstellung bei Gurlitt bemerkt, lagen Assoziationen mit D 2 4 5 3 E 114 115 128 129 10 11 12 13
Edited by Helen Hirsch Book design by Büro 146
In cooperation with Kunstmuseum Thun
Paperback approx. 156 pages, 85 color and 28 b/w illustrations 20 × 27 cm
978-3-03942-133-6 English / German
sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 35.00 | $ 40.00
MARCH 2023 (Europe) JULY 2023 (US)
ISBN 9783039421336
9 783039421336
Marguerite Saegesser American Monotypes
First monograph on Swiss-American artist Marguerite Saegesser (1922–2011)
Focuses on Saegesser’s monotypes, a historic printing process that the artist played a major role in reviving in the 20th century
Examines Marguerite Saegesser’s artistic evolution in the environment of Sam Francis and the San Francisco art scene of the 1970s
Exhibition: Marguerite Saegesser —American Monotypes at Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (February 4 to April 16, 2023)
Marguerite Saegesser (1922–2011) achieved fame in the US, her adopted country for many years, where her prints and paintings were repeatedly shown in group and solo exhibitions in California and New York over a period of two decades. In her native Switzerland, however, the artist and her multifaceted oeuvre are yet to be discovered. This book fills this gap, featuring Saegesser’s art with a special focus on the monotype, a printing technique developed in the 17th century and producing only a single original at a time. It also demonstrates how Saegesser, who initially studied sculpture in Lausanne, found her artistic destiny in America. Key to her evolution was San Francisco’s lively art scene of the late 1970s, and in particular the painter Sam Francis, an outstanding representative of action painting and abstract expressionism, who became her friend and precursor. His fascination with the monotype quickly transferred to Saegesser, who soon achieved mastery in it and made a significant contribution to the revival of the historic technique.
Helen Hirsch is an art historian and director of Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
15
The art of Silvie Defraoui: confronting a consistently uncertain future
Also available:
Silvie und Chérif Defraoui Archives du Futur 14 Comments 1984–2020 978-3-03942-004-9 English / French / German sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 £ 32.00 | $ 40.00
15 Résonance I, 1997 Plis et replis, 2002 ILas afueras de Belchite Indices de variation, Double page suivante (détail) 43 Echo Sombras electricas II, 2009 Double page suivante (détail) Incendie / Hertford Faits et gestes,
Silvie Defraoui A work is never created alone, but in conversation with the world. On Words 978-3-85881-873-7 English / French sFr. 15.00 | € 15.00 £ 12.00 | $ 18.00 9 783039420049 ISBN 978-3-03942-004-9 9 783858818737 ISBN 978-3-85881-873-7
Edited and with an essay by Laurence Schmidlin
Book design by Katharina Lang
In cooperation with MCBA, Lausanne
Hardback approx. 136 pages, 80 color illustrations 18.5 × 24.5 cm
978-3-03942-127-5 English / French / German sFr. 35.00 | € 35.00 | £ 32.00 | $ 40.00
APRIL 2023 (Europe)
AUGUST 2023 (US)
ISBN 9783039421275
9 783039421275
First book on Swiss artist Silvie Defraoui’s work of the past three decades
Features some forty artworks created since 1994, some of which are published in this book for the first time ever
Exhibition: Silvie Defraoui: Le tremblement des certitudes at the MCBA in Lausanne, Switzerland (March 10 to May 21, 2023)
Le tremblement des certitudes
Silvie Defraoui
Unexpected events in the present can in the long term affect our view of both the past and the future. Dealing with this fundamental uncertainty as an artist characterizes the work of Silvie Defraoui, born 1935, and also determines her Archives du Futur, the platform for artistic reflection she initiated in 1975 together with her late partner Chérif (1932–94).
This elegant book features some forty works that Defraoui has created since 1994, using the media of video, painting, neon, and photography. Some them have been newly created for her major solo exhibition at the MCBA in Lausanne in spring 2023 and are published in this book for the first time. All of them bear witness to continuous change and impressively illustrate the metamorphosis of the Archives du Futur, which has now been in existence for almost five decades. Laurence Schmidlin’s essay offers a new approach to Defraoui’s artistic ideas and concepts.
Laurence Schmidlin is an art historian and was appointed director of the Musée d’art du Valais in Sion in 2022. Prior to that she was curator of contemporary art at the MCBA in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
17
A unique visual study of spatial change in Switzerland since 2005
14 04 Engstringerbrücke, Blick nach Nordosten, Rietbach- und Rüti-Gebiet 15 68 2007 2015 2005 2013 31 Feldstrasse, Blick nach Osten, Zelgli-Quartier 69 2011 2019 2009 2017
Edited by Meret Wandeler, Ulrich Görlich, and Caspar Schärer
Book design by
Elektrosmog
In cooperation with Zurich University of the Arts ZHdK / IFCAR
2 volumes in slipcase, hardback approx. 640 pages, 760 color illustrations
22.5 × 30 cm
978-3-03942-140-4 English 978-3-03942-139-8 German
Urban Change Over Time
Urban Change Over Time is the most comprehensive photographic study of urban development in German-speaking Europe to date
This unique image archive demonstrates how urbanization processes affect local residents’ habitats
Visualizes continuous spatial changes that are not immediately perceptible in everyday life
The two-volumes set features some 700 previously unpublished color photographs taken over the research period 2005–20, supplemented with essays, analyses and interpretations, and maps
The Photographic Observation of Schlieren 2005–2020 Reveals How Switzerland Is Changing
The longterm Photographic Observation Schlieren is a muchrecognized unique research project that documents urban development in Switzerland. Over a period of fifteen years, a photographic record of building activity and urbanization processes was conducted to demonstrate how these are altering the character of a typical Swiss suburban community. The chosen example was the town of Schlieren, bordering the city of Zurich to the west, whose population grew from 13,000 to 20,000 residents during the observation period of 2005–20. At Sixtyt hree locations throughout Schlieren, pictures were taken under identical conditions every two years that show the changes in the spatial interplay of buildings, streets, and green spaces. Simultaneously, series of topical detailed photographs were produced that focus on individual objects and tell of the appropriation, design, and aesthetics of habitats, such as store fronts, building entrances, playgrounds, parking entrances, etc.
This two volume book brings together the results of this spectacular research. The Archive volume features the entire body of the eight images taken at each of the sixtyt hree sites to visualize the deep changes Schlieren has undergone during these fifteen years. The Essays volume combines the topical image series with essays that offer indepth examination of the study’s subject, detailed analyses and interpretations, and interviews by expert authors from various disciplines.
Meret Wandeler is a Zurichbased photographer and artist who has conducted several artistic research projects on spatial development in Switzerland.
Ulrich Görlich is an artist and former head of the Master of Fine Arts program at Zurich University of the Art ZHdK.
Caspar Schärer is a Zurichbased architect and writer who also serves as secretary general of the Federation of Swiss Architects (BSA).
& Spiess Spring 2023
| €
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sFr. 79.00
77.00
£ 70.00 | $ 85.00 MAY 2023 (Europe) SEPTEMBER 2023 (US) English German
19 9 783039421398 ISBN 9783039421398 9 783039421404 ISBN 9783039421404
Scheidegger
A new look at the classical academic artist Aristide Maillol (1861–1944) and his art in the context of current gender debates
Features Aristide Maillol’s Vénus au collier together with works by:
Judith Berstein (USA, born 1942)
Anna Boghiguian (Egypt, born 1946)
Verena Loewensberg (Switzerland, 1912–86)
Helen Dahm (Switzerland, 1878–1968)
Nathalie Djurberg (Sweden, born 1978) /
Hans Berg (Sweden, born 1978)
Sylvie Fleury (Switzerland, born 1961)
Isa Genzken (Germany, born 1948)
Jenny Holzer (USA, born 1950)
Angelika Kauffmann (Austria, 1741–1807)
Meret Oppenheim (Switzerland, 1913–85)
Ottilie Wilhelmine Roederstein (Germany, 1859–1937)
Germaine Richier (France, 1902–59)
Sophie Taeuber-Arp (Switzerland, 1889–1943)
Rebecca Warren (Britain, born 1965)
53 Germaine Richier: Die Kröte / Le Crapaud, Xxxxx, 1942 65 Sylvie Fleury: 283 Chevy, 1999 5
1928 BRONZE 175×62×44 CM
ARISTIDE MAILLOL
VENUS WITH A NECKLACE
Edited by Kunsthaus Zürich Book design by Ralf Klöden
Paperback approx. 80 pages, 48 color illustrations 17 × 23.5 cm 978-3-03942-125-1 English / German
sFr. 25.00 | € 25.00 | £ 22.00 | $ 29.00
AVAILABLE (Europe) MARCH 2023 (US)
Maillol—A Different View
Explores the question of the foundation of the male gaze at women practiced by classical academic artists of the 19th and early 20th centuries, and how we perceive it today against the backdrop of current gender debates
An extraordinary photo essay juxtaposes Maillol’s Vénus au collier with works by modern and contemporary women artists
With a contribution by feminist art historian and curator Catherine McCormack
French sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861–1944) is sometimes referred to as the “Cézanne of sculpture” as he, like Paul Cézanne in the case of painting, paved the way for abstraction in his artistic field. Maillol began his career as a painter and produced a highly attractive body of work that is far too little known outside France. This book, published in conjunction with a comprehensive Maillol exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich, asks questions about the foundation of that male gaze at women that Maillol’s art reflects, and how we perceive it today against the background of current gender debates. Franca Candrian’s extraordinary photo essay confronts Maillol’s Vénus au collier with works by modern and contemporary women artists from the Kunsthaus Zürich’s collection. An essay by feminist art historian and curator Catherine McCormack explores the presence of this art—which in most cases depicts female nudes—in contemporary museums. Supplemented by an introduction by Philippe Büttner, curator of Kunsthaus Zürich’s permanent collection, the book thus offers a new, different view of Aristide Maillol and his art.
Kunsthaus Zürich is one of Europe’s leading art museums and Switzerland’s largest art institution. Its permanent collection comprises masterpieces ranging from medieval to contemporary art, with a focus on French Impressionism, Postimpressionism, and classical modernism.
&
Spring 2023 21 9 783039421251 ISBN 978-3-03942-125-1
Scheidegger
Spiess
lismus verpflichtete, aus Holz geschaffene Rehköpfe wurden an die Wand montiert. Das Reh gilt als Krafttier und steht für Familienbande, Muttersein und Sinnlichkeit. Auch das Werk «Trophäen» (2019) setzt sich mit der Thematik «Verletzbarkeit und Wehrhaftigkeit» auseinander. Es umfasst 180 aus dem Holz geschälte und in Farbe gefasste Hörner von je zwei Tieren der nördlichen und der südlichen Hemisphäre: der Kuh und dem Von besonderer Prägnanz und Ästhetik ist die Installation «Ereignisse 1» (2019) die ein Rudel aus lebensgrossen, aus dem vollen Holz herausgearbeiteten und farbig bemalten Wölfen zusammenfasst. Inhaltlich ist sie eine Weiterführung der Arbeit «Rotkäppchen» (2014) Hier liegt jedoch der Fokus auf dem Wolf. Dieser ist ein Raubtier und ein Jäger. Gleichzeitig ist er ein vom Menschen Gejagter, er wird zu dessen Jagdtrophäe. Das Wesen des Wolfes ist von einer starken Gegensätzlichkeit geprägt. Als vermeintlicher und vermenschlichter Bösewicht hat er Einzug in Redewendungen, Sprichwörter und Fabeln gehalten. Ganz zu Unrecht, denn das sensible und äusserst anpassungsfähige Tier hat einen ausgeprägten Sozialsinn und wird in allen Kulturen als starkes Rudeltier mit besonderen Kräften dargestellt.
Intimität und Öffentlichkeit Während des Atelieraufenthalts in New York 2016 entstanden die drei örtlich inspirierten Arbeiten «Embleme», «Rückenkratzer» und «big teddy», die alle in einer ganz eigenen Ausdrucksform wieder auf Verletzbarkeit und Intimität sowie Ausgesetztheit und Öffentlichkeit verweisen.
Die Serie «Embleme» (2016) besteht aus mehreren kleinformatigen Holzarbeiten, alle gefasst in Farbe und Blattgold oder -aluminium. Die hölzernen Protagonisten, Hasen und Ratten –Tiere, welche die Felder im Umland der Metropole New York in grosser Zahl beleben –, sind auf Nimben inszeniert. Die Tiere des Alltags, die so eine Aura des Heiligen bekommen, werden zu Ikonen erhoben. Dieser inhaltliche Kontrast korrespondiert mit der gestalterischen Umsetzung zwischen feiner und realistischer sowie flüchtiger und abstrahierter Bearbeitung. Die für eine Gruppenausstellung in Havanna (Kuba) entstandene Arbeit «Cuba Raben» (2018) folgt inhaltlich und gestalterisch dieser Werkgruppe. Der «big teddy» (2016) ist ein in Originalgrösse aus Holz geschaffener, riesiger amerikanischer Abfallsack, hier mit einem einverleibten Teddybären. Ein Abfallsack porträtiert mit seiner Füllung einen Haushalt, er ist gefüllt mit Intimität. Er birgt also für Aussenstehende ein Geheimnis. Dabei ist die Plastikhaut sehr dünn und verletzlich. Drei Jahre später fanden die Abfallsäcke aus Holz im Rahmen der Installation «big teddy» (2019) einen Platz in der Peterskapelle in Luzern. In der Passionszeit
An illuminating survey of Swiss artist Rochus Lussi’s work of three decades
60 61 72 73
Skizze, 2016, New York Cuba Raben, 2018, Lindenholz, Schlagmetall installation, which brings together a pack of life-size wolves carved out of solid wood with painted surfaces. In terms of content, it is a continuation of “Rotkäppchen” (2014) here, however, is on the wolf. The wolf is at once a predator and a hunter. At the same time, however, it is hunted by humans and becomes their hunting trophy. The nature of the wolf is characterised by a strong dichotomy. As a reputed and humanised villain, it has found its way into idioms, proverbs and fables. Quite unjustifiably, because the sensitive and extremely adaptable animal has pronounced social intelligence and is depicted in all cultures as a strong pack animal with special powers. Three works were inspired during his artistic sojourn in New York in 2016: “Embleme”, “Rückenkratzer” and “big teddy”, all of which again refer to vulnerability and the private as well as exposure and the public in very unique form of expression. The “Embleme” (2016) series consists of several small-format wooden sculptures, all set in colour and gold or aluminium leaf. The wooden protagonists are rabbits and rats – animals that inhabit the fields surrounding the metropolis of New York in large numbers – presented on nimbuses. Animals of everyday life thus acquire an aura of the sacred and are elevated to icons. This contrast in content corresponds with the creative realisation between the subtle and realistic as well as the ephemeral and abstract. In similar vein, “Cuba Raben” (2018) created for a group exhibition in Havana, follows this collection of works in terms of content and design. “big teddy” (2016) is huge American rubbish bag in its original size and made of wood, here with a teddy bear inside. A rubbish bag with its contents represents a household. It is filled with intimacy and therefore harbours a secret from outsiders. Yet the plastic skin is very thin and vulnerable. Three years later, the wooden rubbish bags were part of the “big teddy” (2019)lation in St. Peter’s Chapel in Lucerne. On display during Passiontide between Carnival and Easter, they referenced sins and their atonement as well as the hidden, dark chapters of church history. “Rückenkratzer” (2016) also aligns with the theme of private versus public. The 25 wooden objects presented in the installation are fanciful and filigree as well as completely different in design: they are fitted with little hands on top and on the bottom with a cow’s tail, meat tenderiser, dildo, massage ball and other items. A backscratcher is a helper when you are alone, it provides well-being or – if the pressure is too great – pain. A continuation of the content-related theme as well as the diversification of 176 177 140 141 368 369 «WolfWolf», 2021, Liveaufnahme expoTURBINE Giswil, mit Marcel Frank und Reto Eller 357
Texts by Brigitte Moser, Janine Schmutz, Urs Sibler, and Heinz Stahlhut
Book design by Hampi Krähenbühl
Hardback approx. 400 pages, 433 color and 8 b/w illustrations 21 × 26.5 cm 978-3-03942-143-5 English / German
sFr. 79.00 | € 77.00 | £ 70.00 | $ 90.00
APRIL 2023 (Europe) AUGUST 2023 (US)
ISBN 9783039421435
First monograph on Swiss artist Rochus Lussi, offering a survey of his entire body of work from three decades
Richly illustrated and featuring numerous works published in this book for the first time ever
The individual’s existence in the mass and issues of vulnerability, sensitivity, and defensibility are the key topics of Rochus Lussi’s art
Rochus Lussi—Thin Skin
Works 1992–2023
Swiss artist Rochus Lussi, born in 1965, examines the individual’s existence in the mass. Issues of vulnerability, sensitivity, and defensibility are also key topics of his art, for which he mainly employs the mediums of sculpture and installation, but also drawings and performance.
This first monograph on Lussi offers a broad survey of his work from thirty years, featuring small and multipart installations, wood sculptures, works on paper, and photographs of his performance actions. The human figure is at the core of his early works, yet over time this begins to dissolve, and forms from everyday life, structures, draperies, surfaces of different body worlds come to the fore. The comprehensive visual presentation of Lussi’s oeuvre is supplemented with essays contributed by art historians, curators, and art educators.
Brigitte Moser is an art historian and researcher based in Zug, Switzerland.
Janine Schmutz is head of art education at the Fondation Beyeler in Riehen, near Basel, Switzerland.
Urs Sibler is a freelance art educator and curator based in Stans, Switzerland.
Heinz Stahlhut is an art historian and director of Hans Erni Museum in Lucerne, Switzerland.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
23
9 783039421435
Artistic freedom meant more to him than fame and glory: the Swiss painter Theo Gerber
Suche nach Grenzenlosigkeit Quête d’infini Alisa Klay
einen Ausweg –auf die andere Seite.» Gerbers Worte verdeutlichen seine Sehnsucht nach Weite und beschreiben zugleich das spezifische Gefühl der Enge, das Paul Nizon in seinem wegweisenden Aufsatzzeichnet. Tatsächlich mögen die Berge aufgrund ihrer mächtigen Präsenz und der unberechenbaren Naturgewalt, die der atemberaubenden, aber für den Menschen lebensbedrohlichen Gebirgslandschaft innewohnt, wie ein vermeintlich unüberwindbares Hindernis erscheinen. Doch die Furcht vor der Enge resultiert nicht nur aus der geologischen Beschaffenheit des Landes, sondern entsteht vielmehr aus der «Absenz von Welt», die sich im Umkehrschluss durch eben jene natürliche Begrenzung ergibt. Dabei stellt die Schweiz – um es mit den Worten Nizons auszudrücken – einen zusätzlichen «Sonderfall» dar. Denn ihre beständige Neutralität bedeutet gleichzeitig auch ihre stetige Distanz zur äusseren Welt. So wirkt die Region, in der Theo Gerber aufwächst, wie ein eigener Kosmos, in dem sich der junge Maler zunehmend eingeengt und fehl «Stundenlang träumte ich am Wasser; nur selten malte ich ein Bild. Zwischen Seegras und lautlosen Fischen, wenn Wellen spiegelten, entNiedergeschriebene Erinnerungen wie diese zeugen von dem Vgl.: GERBER (1984): Theo Gerber: Ghiribizzi. Zeichnungen. Dessins. Zürich 1984, S. 23. Vgl.: NIZON (1970): Paul Nizon: Diskurs in der Enge. Schriften zur Vgl.: Ebd., S. 46. Vgl.: GERBER (1984): Theo Gerber: Ghiribizzi. Zeichnungen. Dessins.
il se sent rapidement à l’étroit La ville d’où je viens est délimitée par des sommets montagneux aussi variés que la chaîne des Alpes, le Jura et les collines de l’Emmental elle est comme cloisonnée. Il semble ne pas avoir d’issue, de moyen de passer de l’autre côté. Ces propos de Theo Gerber illustrent sa soif de grands espaces et traduisent cette sensation d’enfermement si spécifique que Paul Nizon qualifiait de phénomène suisse » dans son essai pionnier de 1970. En effet, la montagne, lieu à la fois époustouflant et mortellement dangereux pour l’Homme, dégage une impression tellement imposante et une force si imprévisible qu’on pourrait la considérer comme un obstacle insurmontable. Cette peur des espaces confinés n’est pas seulement liée à des caractéristiques géologiques, mais bien plus à « l’absence du monde qui est à son tour le résultat de ce confinement naturel. En ce sens, la Suisse est une fois de plus un Sonderfall pour reprendre les termes de Nizon. En effet, sa « neutralité éternelle signifie qu’elle se tient toujours à distance du monde extérieur. Ainsi,
Suche nach Grenzenlosigkeit / Quête d’infini Alisa Klay
«Ich misstraue den Gesetzen [sic] die andere errichtet haben, das Erstarren der Form ist bedrohlich, und ich fürchte mich vor Grenzen.» Diese Aussage des Schweizer Künstlers Theo Gerber ist exemplarisch und scheint der Ausgangspunkt seiner Lebensreise wie auch die Voraussetzung für seine Weltauffassung zu sein, die ebenso in seiner Kunst zum Ausdruck kommt. Geboren und aufgewachsen in Thun, fühlt sich der Freigeist in der bürgerlichen Idylle des Berner Oberlandes regelrecht gefangen. «Meine Heimat ist begrenzt von so verschiedenen Berghöhen wie der Alpenkette, dem Jura und den Emmentaler Hügeln; sie ist wie eingesperrt. Es scheint schwer, einen Weg zu finden –
me
la région dans laquelle Theo Gerber grandit agit comme un microcosme dans lequel le jeune peintre se sent de plus en plus à l’étroit et de moins en moins sa place. Je passais des heures rêver au bord de l’eau et ne peignais qu’en de rares occasions. Entre les algues et les poissons silencieux, je découvrais des mondes étranges lorsque chatoyaient les vagues. Le récit de souvenirs tels que celui-ci Cf. : GERBER (1984) : Theo Gerber : Ghiribizzi. Zeichnungen. Dessins. Zurich 1984, p. 23. Cf. : NIZON (1970) : Paul Nizon : Diskurs in der Enge. Schriften zur Schweizer Kunst. Zurich 1970, p. 45. Cf. : Ibid., p. 46. Cf. : GERBER (1984) : Theo Gerber : Ghiribizzi. Zeichnungen. Dessins. Zu67 No 517, 1970 Acryl auf Leinwand, 62 50 cm Detail Visite chez Damo S.13 72 Le vent a tourné, 1970 Öl auf Leinwand, 80 80 cm Detail Nostalgie 87 Le plaisir, 1977 Öl auf Leinwand, 81 × 100 cm
Je me méfie des lois [sic] qui ont été édictées par d’autres, l’immobilisation de la forme a quelque chose de menaçant
et les délimitations
font peur. Cette déclaration de l’artiste suisse Theo Gerber est exemplaire elle semble constituer à la fois le point de départ de sa trajectoire et les prémisses de sa conception du monde, qui s’expriment également dans son œuvre artistique. C’est à Thoune que cet esprit libre voit le jour et grandit, un lieu bourgeois et idyllique de l’Oberland bernois dans lequel
Edited by Helen Hirsch Book design by Bonsma & Reist
In cooperation with Kunstmuseum Thun
Paperback approx. 128 pages, 69 color and 58 b/w illustrations 22 × 31 cm
978-3-03942-126-8 French / German
sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 35.00 | $ 45.00
MARCH 2023 (Europe)
ISBN 9783039421268
9 783039421268
Theo Gerber Science
Fiction
First-ever monograph on Swiss painter Theo Gerber (1928–1997)
Traces Theo Gerber’s career in Switzerland, Paris, and Africa and sheds light on his involvement with the Swiss artist collective Ulysses Exhibition: Theo Gerber—Science Fiction at Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland (February 4 to April 16, 2023)
“We dive into Gerber’s worlds to lose ourselves and to find ourselves again in amazing places.” This is how the Swiss art historian and acclaimed novelist Paul Nizon characterized the work of his compatriot, the painter Theo Gerber (1928–1997). Gerber was a free spirit who has remained largely unknown in his native country until the present day. This is due to the artist’s own choice, having rejected the efforts of gallery owners to introduce his works to the general public. For Gerber, success did not mean fame and glory, but rather that his art showed a different possibility from that of his contemporaries. The way in which Gerber, who roamed between a variety of styles, traveled the world, and lived with the ethnic group of the Dogon in West Africa for two years during a creative crisis, upheld his artistic freedom makes it impossible to assign him to a specific direction in 20th century art. This book, published to coincide with a retrospective exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland, is an overdue tribute to this, in the best sense of the word, incomprehensible artist and finally provides the general public with a chance to discover and recognize his oeuvre.
Helen Hirsch is an art historian and director of Kunstmuseum Thun, Switzerland.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
25
A timely tribute to Romantic painting: the Swiss artist brothers Léopold and Aurèle Robert
Edited by David Lemaire and Antonia Nessi
Book design by onlab
In cooperation with Musée des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds and Musée d’art et d’histoire de Neuchâtel
Hardback approx. 240 pages, 170 color illustrations 23.5 × 28.5 cm 978-3-85881-887-4 French
sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 45.00 | $ 55.00
JUNE 2023 (Europe)
Léopold et Aurèle Robert
First major book in four decades on the 19th-century Swiss artist brothers Léopold and Aurèle Robert
Based on an interdisciplinary joint research project of the University of Neuchâtel, Switzerland, and the École du Louvre in Paris
Scholarly essays and some 170 color plates are complemented by a literary text by acclaimed French author Pierre Senges
Exhibition: Léopold et Aurèle Robert. Oh saisons … at the Musée des beaux-arts in La Chauxde-Fonds, Switzerland, and the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Neuchâtel, Switzerland (May 15 to October 15, 2023)
Swiss painter Léopold Robert (1794–1835) is emblematic of the romantic myth of the artist with a tragic destiny. Educated in Paris at the École des BeauxA rts and in the studios of artists Jacques L ouis David and Edouard Girardet, he moved to Italy in 1818. With the substantial assistance of his brother and fellow artist Aurèle (1805–71), he created idealized depictions of Italian brigand life and gained recognition throughout Europe. Yet, his success as a painter did not save him from the deep melancholy that eventually led to his suicide in 1835, due also to his unrequited love for Princess Charlotte Bonaparte. Loved and praised by collectors and art critics of their time, the Robert brothers’ oeuvre gradually fell into oblivion after Léopold’s death and Aurèle’s subsequent return to Switzerland.
This book, published to coincide with a dual exhibition at the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Neuchâtel and the Musée des beauxa rts in the Robert brothers’ native town of La Chaux de Fonds, pays tribute to their art and brings their great skill as painters back into focus. Based on a major research project at the University of Neuchâtel and the École du Louvre in Paris, it offers scholarly essays alongside some 170 color plates.
David Lemaire is director of the Musée des beaux a rts in La Chaux deFonds, Switzerland.
Antonia Nessi is co d irector of the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Neuchâtel, Switzerland.
Spring 2023 27 9 783858818874 ISBN 9783858818874
Scheidegger & Spiess
The rediscovery of a previously overlooked Swiss artist
Edited by Francesca Benini and Arianna Quaglio
Book design
by Martina Brassel
In cooperation with MASI Lugano and Museum Haus Konstruktiv, Zurich
Paperback approx. 144 pages, 76 color illustrations 23 × 30 cm 978-3-03942-131-2 Italian / German
sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 45.00 | $ 55.00
APRIL 2023 (Europe)
ISBN 9783039421312
9 783039421312
Hedi Mertens
First comprehensive monograph on Hedi Mertens, a significant representative of Concrete art in Switzerland
Enables the rediscovery of an important yet forgotten Swiss artist Exhibition: Hedi Mertens at MASI Lugano (March 10 to May 21, 2023) and Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich (spring 2024)
The career of Swiss painter Hedi Mertens (1893–1982) differs in many respects from that of other artists of her time. Following a classical art education in Zurich and Munich, she moved primarily in intellectual milieus that brought her closer to the Constructivist C oncrete art movement, which had an epicenter in Zurich around Max Bill and Richard Paul Lohse. Lohse was one of Mertens’ most influential companions and interlocutors, together with Leo Leuppi, Arend Fuhrmann, and Helen Dahm, with whom she shared a deep fascination for the teachings of Indian guru Shri Meher Baba. At the age of 67, Mertens moved to Ticino, in southern Switzerland, where she finally let the manifold sources of inspiration flow into her own art. Within two decades Mertens created some 200 geometricabstract paintings that urgently await their much deserved appreciation.
This first monograph on Hedi Mertens, published in conjunction with exhibitions at MASI Lugano and the Museum Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich, brings the masterful art and eventful life of this Swiss painter into focus. It enables the rediscovery of a significant representative of Concrete art in Switzerland who has been overlooked too long.
Francesca Benini is an art historian and curator at MASI Lugano. Arianna Quaglio is an art historian and junior curator at MASI Lugano.
Scheidegger & Spiess Spring 2023
29
The life and work of Meret Oppenheim: insights, interpretations, and indications
Meret Oppenheim Enigmas
A Journey Through Her Life and Work
978-3-03942-063-6 English 978-3-03942-046-9 German sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 30.00 | $ 39.00
Vibrant metropolis and placid Switzerland: Lill Tschudi’s modernist linocuts
Lill Tschudi
The Excitement of the Modern Linocut 1930–1950
978-3-03942-057-5 English / German sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 35.00 | $ 45.00
Very intimate insights: Meret Oppenheim’s album and autobiography
Meret Oppenheim—My Album
The autobiographical Album “From Childhood until 1943” and her handwritten biography
978-3-03942-093-3 English / German sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 42.00 | $ 50.00
A unique insight into Marina Abramovic´s biography and art and what connects the two
Psychoanalyst meets Marina Abramovic´ Artist meets Jeannette Fischer
978-3-85881-794-5 English 978-3-85881-546-0 German sFr. 19.00 | € 19.00 | £ 18.00 | $ 20.00
From Constructivism to Art Deco and back to avant-garde and the Bauhaus: a unique survey of transformations of Soviet interior design across six decades
Soviet Design
From Constructivism to Modernism.
1920–1980
978-3-85881-846-1 English sFr. 99.00 | € 77.00 | £ 65.00 | $ 85.00
An extraordinary collection of Paul Klee’s drawings, watercolors, and prints
Paul Klee
The Sylvie and Jorge Helft Collection
978-3-03942-107-7 English 978-3-03942-106-0 German sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 42.00 | $ 50.00
The cheerful style of Zurich-based Atelier Zanolli
Atelier Zanolli Fabrics, Fashion, Craft 1905–1939
978-3-03942-082-7 English 978-3-03942-081-0
An extraordinary artist and designer: a fresh view of Harry Bertoia’s entire body of work
Harry Bertoia Sculpting Mid-Century Modern Life
978-3-85881-862-1 English sFr. 65.00 | € 58.00 | £ 52.00 | $ 59.00
Scheidegger & Spiess Key Titles 30
German sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 45.00 | $ 55.00
9 783039420575 ISBN 978-3-03942-057-5 9 783858818621 ISBN 978-3-85881-862-1 9 783858818461 ISBN 978-3-85881-846-1 9 783039420933 ISBN 978-3-03942-093-3 English German 9 783858817945 ISBN 978-3-85881-794-5 9 783858815460 ISBN 978-3-85881-546-0 English German 9 783039420636 ISBN 978-3-03942-063-6 9 783039420469 ISBN 978-3-03942-046-9 English German 9 783039421077 ISBN 978-3-03942-107-7 9 783039421060 ISBN 978-3-03942-106-0 English German 9 783039420827 ISBN 978-3-03942-082-7 9 783039420810 ISBN 978-3-03942-081-0
The magic and fascination of Chinese jade objects outstandingly presented in photographs
Forever Jade Chinese Jade Miniatures from Four Millennia
978-3-03942-102-2 English / German sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 32.00 | $ 45.00
An illustrated reader on the highly topical subject of tribal art in the museums of the Global North
Pathways of Art
How Objects Get to the Museum
978-3-03942-097-1 English 978-3-03942-096-4 German sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 32.00 | $ 40.00
Caroline Bachmann
978-3-85881-886-7 English / French sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 45.00 | $ 55.00
ISBN 978-3-03942-102-2 9 783858818867
A unique long-term project of photographic art without camera
The Never Taken Images
Photographic Paper Archive 1880–1990
978-3-03942-091-9 English / French / German sFr. 49.00 | € 48.00 | £ 45.00 | $ 55.00
An entirely new artistic approach to Le Corbusier’s iconic chapel of Notre-Dame-du-Haut in Ronchamp
Le Corbusier Ronchamp
Siegrun Appelt
978-3-85881-695-5 English / German sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 35.00 | $ 40.00
Peter Zumthor’s surprising and revealing reflections on time and history in conversation with architectural historian Mari Lending
A Feeling of History
978-3-85881-805-8 English 978-3-85881-812-6 French 978-3-85881-558-3 German sFr. 29.00 | € 29.00 | £ 25.00 | $ 29.00
Looking beyond the popular fascination with trendy tiny houses
Open House Designing Spaces for Living
978-3-85881-885-0 English / French sFr. 39.00 | € 38.00 | £ 32.00 | $ 40.00
In conversation, Peter Zumthor explores his own and his guests’ passions
Dear to Me Peter Zumthor in Conversation
978-3-03942-010-0 English 978-3-03942-009-4 German sFr. 160.00 | € 150.00 | £ 140.00 | $ 180.00
Painter Caroline Bachmann: 2022 laureate of Switzerland’s Prix Meret Oppenheim for art
Key
31
Scheidegger & Spiess
Titles
9 783039420919 ISBN 978-3-03942-091-9 9 783858818850 ISBN 978-3-85881-885-0 English German 9 783039420971 ISBN 978-3-03942-097-1 9 783039420964 ISBN 978-3-03942-096-4 9 783039421022
ISBN 978-3-85881-886-7 9 783858816955 ISBN 978-3-85881-695-5 English French 9 783858818058 ISBN 978-3-85881-805-8 9 783858818126 ISBN 978-3-85881-812-6 English German 9 783039420100 ISBN 978-3-03942-010-0 9 783039420094 ISBN 978-3-03942-009-4
Scheide gger & Spiess Art I Photography I Architecture
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Cover image: Werner Bischof, Orchids (study), 1943 © Werner Bischof Estate / Magnum Photos. From the book Werner Bischof: Unseen Colour (see pages 6/7)
Scheidegger & Spiess is being supported by the Swiss Federal Office of Culture with a general subsidy for the years 2021–2024. January 2023. Prices quoted in Euro are valid in Germany only including VAT. For all other countries prices quoted in Euro, Pounds Sterling, and US-Dollars are recommended retail prices and may vary subject to local duty and taxes. All prices, dates, and descriptions are subject to change without notice.
