Werner Witschi
04 Aug - 31 Dec 2006
WERNER WITSCHI
"Paintings and Sculptures from the Collection"
04 August 2006 - 31 December 2006
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Werner Witschi (born June 10, 1906, in Urtenen – died December 24, 1999, in Bolligen), the Museum of Fine Arts Bern is showing a selection of paintings and sculptures by Werner Witschi from its collection.
Although he is among the important Bernese sculptors in metal, Witschi has always remained somewhat marginalized in the art scene. This may have been due to his main occupation as a teacher. After a short artistic apprenticeship in Paris with André Lhote, Amédée Ozenfant and Roger Bissière, Witschi worked from 1930 at the secondary school in Bolligen and then from 1963 as a part-time drawing teacher in Bern. Until his retirement in 1971 he could only devote himself to his art in his free time, and it was not until the late 1940s that he exhibited his works publicly.
Until 1950, Witschi was solely a painter and graphic artist. In the 1940s, his style, at first realistic, became increasingly expressive and melancholy. His motifs – landscapes and people, often depicted in existentially desperate situations – were translated in a strongly simplified, synthetic line language and the colouring was usually reduced to earthy tones with a few strong accents. Sometimes Witschi scattered the pigments in powdered form directly onto a still damp layer of Chinese white in order to attain an unbroken colouring with fine nuances.
In 1950, stimulated by an encounter with the art of Dubuffet, Witschi begins to experiment with new materials: paint is now replaced by wire, string and pieces of wood, with which he “draws” his figures and portraits in increasingly abstract form onto surfaces of metal or wood. In 1952-1953, the first fully plastic figures are made. In 1953, he is probably the first ever artist to use mirrors in his works. During these years, Witschi progresses steadily from expressive figuration to constructive, abstract art and begins to systematically explore the various combinations of increasingly elementary forms.
In 1966, Witschi includes movement into his sculpture. In contrast to most exponents of kinetic art, which was at the zenith of its success at that time, he does without technical aids such as motors and conceives his kinetic objects as pendulums that are moved by wind or the human hand. While he was experimenting with lattice-shaped pendulum elements that same year, the artist discovered the Moiré effect. Mathematicians call the optical phenomenon of new, surprising patterns created by overlapping lattices “Moiré”, a word borrowed from textile art. The Moiré phenomenon now becomes the determining motif in Witschi’s work. He explores it in all its aspects, thereby creating a completely individual fusion of kinetics and Op Art .
From the fund of the Werner Witschi Foundation, founded in 1987 and dissolved in 2005, the Museum of Fine Arts Bern was able to choose a further selection of works by the artist to round out its collection.
With this small exhibition, the Museum is commencing with a series of presentations changing twice yearly of groups of works from the painting and sculpture collection which, for one reason or another, cannot be integrated into the permanent exhibition. In addition to thematic and monographic samples from the stock of older as well as contemporary art, new acquisitions are periodically to be presented in this space.
"Paintings and Sculptures from the Collection"
04 August 2006 - 31 December 2006
On the occasion of the 100th birthday of Werner Witschi (born June 10, 1906, in Urtenen – died December 24, 1999, in Bolligen), the Museum of Fine Arts Bern is showing a selection of paintings and sculptures by Werner Witschi from its collection.
Although he is among the important Bernese sculptors in metal, Witschi has always remained somewhat marginalized in the art scene. This may have been due to his main occupation as a teacher. After a short artistic apprenticeship in Paris with André Lhote, Amédée Ozenfant and Roger Bissière, Witschi worked from 1930 at the secondary school in Bolligen and then from 1963 as a part-time drawing teacher in Bern. Until his retirement in 1971 he could only devote himself to his art in his free time, and it was not until the late 1940s that he exhibited his works publicly.
Until 1950, Witschi was solely a painter and graphic artist. In the 1940s, his style, at first realistic, became increasingly expressive and melancholy. His motifs – landscapes and people, often depicted in existentially desperate situations – were translated in a strongly simplified, synthetic line language and the colouring was usually reduced to earthy tones with a few strong accents. Sometimes Witschi scattered the pigments in powdered form directly onto a still damp layer of Chinese white in order to attain an unbroken colouring with fine nuances.
In 1950, stimulated by an encounter with the art of Dubuffet, Witschi begins to experiment with new materials: paint is now replaced by wire, string and pieces of wood, with which he “draws” his figures and portraits in increasingly abstract form onto surfaces of metal or wood. In 1952-1953, the first fully plastic figures are made. In 1953, he is probably the first ever artist to use mirrors in his works. During these years, Witschi progresses steadily from expressive figuration to constructive, abstract art and begins to systematically explore the various combinations of increasingly elementary forms.
In 1966, Witschi includes movement into his sculpture. In contrast to most exponents of kinetic art, which was at the zenith of its success at that time, he does without technical aids such as motors and conceives his kinetic objects as pendulums that are moved by wind or the human hand. While he was experimenting with lattice-shaped pendulum elements that same year, the artist discovered the Moiré effect. Mathematicians call the optical phenomenon of new, surprising patterns created by overlapping lattices “Moiré”, a word borrowed from textile art. The Moiré phenomenon now becomes the determining motif in Witschi’s work. He explores it in all its aspects, thereby creating a completely individual fusion of kinetics and Op Art .
From the fund of the Werner Witschi Foundation, founded in 1987 and dissolved in 2005, the Museum of Fine Arts Bern was able to choose a further selection of works by the artist to round out its collection.
With this small exhibition, the Museum is commencing with a series of presentations changing twice yearly of groups of works from the painting and sculpture collection which, for one reason or another, cannot be integrated into the permanent exhibition. In addition to thematic and monographic samples from the stock of older as well as contemporary art, new acquisitions are periodically to be presented in this space.