Otto Abt (painter)

Otto Hans Abt (born June 9, 1903 in Binningen , † October 1, 1982 in Basel ) was a Swiss painter .

Life

Otto Abt-Rockenbach. Wolfgottesacker cemetery , Basel.

Otto Abt was born in 1903 in Binningen in the canton of Basel-Landschaft as the son of a doctor. He studied medicine at the University of Basel , he broke off his studies after two years and concentrated on his training as a painter at the trade school in Basel . There he got to know the painters Walter Kurt Wiemken and Walter Bodmer , with whom he remained connected through a lifelong friendship. Since 1927 joint study trips took place, including to Spain and southern France and longer study stays in Paris , where Abbot came into contact with the Parisian avant-garde painting . By dealing with the work of Matisse , Picasso and Dalí and his friendship with the surrealist painter Serge Brignoni , he developed his own, surrealistic style of painting.

In an effort to gain recognition for modern, abstract-concrete and surrealist painting in Switzerland, Abt and several other Basel artists founded the anti - fascist " Gruppe 33 " in 1933 . In 1936 he joined the " allianz ", an association of modern Swiss artists who also campaigned for the promotion of non-representational art. Abbot, a staunch opponent of fascism and war, spent the years of the Second World War in Ticino .

From the 1950s onwards, Abt was increasingly active in various artistic fields; In addition to panel painting, he created wall paintings and glass pictures on public buildings, majolica and mosaics . He has also been involved, along with other artists in “Gruppe 33”, since the 1920s in the development and design of the “Basler Künstlerlarvae”, artistically designed larvae that are used during the Basel Carnival . Some of his works emerged from competitions organized by the Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt .

Since 1951 he was married to Martha Rockenbach (1909–1974), the widow of the architect Eduard Preiswerk (1904–1935). His grave is on the Wolfgottesacker in Basel.

Works

Abt's rejection of fascism and his socially critical attitude are reflected in many of his works. While his early works were still determined by impressionistic influences and a toned painting, over the years he developed his painting style influenced by surrealism, which is characterized by object alienation and fantastic picture elements. In his later work, Abt increasingly resorted to landscape motifs and still lifes . Abbot's works have been shown in numerous exhibitions, especially in Switzerland.

Selection of his works:

• Before sunrise (majolica), 1934, fountain decorations, Petersschule, Basel [1]
• One of four glass pictures, in the stairwell, 1936–1938, Gottfried Keller School, St. Galler-Ring 101, Basel
• Robinson (mural), 1939–1941, Bruderholzschule on Fritz Hauser-Strasse, Basel
• Aurore (painting), 1935, Kunstmuseum Basel
• Der Geldscheisser , (glass picture), 1943–1945, Spiegelhof, Spiegelgasse 6, Basel
• Africa (mural) in the vestibule 1947–1948, Niederholzschule, Riehen
• Noah's Ark (mural) 1950–52, Kindergarten-Neubadschule, Basel
• Fox and Raven (mural) 1953–1955, Wasgenringschule at Blotzheimerstrasse 10, Basel. Abbot's mural was just one of seven murals designed by different artists. The badly damaged murals were partly replaced by mosaics in 1958 and 1980/1981.
• Nature Technology Science (mosaic), 1956–1957, secondary school at Hermann Kinkelin-Strasse 10, Basel
• Composition (mural), 1968, Spiegelfeld School, Binningen
• Landscape composition (mural), 1975–1977, retirement home “To the three fountains”, Riehen
• Seasons (glass pictures), 1974–1976, crematorium of the cemetery at Hörnli, Riehen

literature

• Tapan Bhattacharya: Abbot, Otto. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
• Sibylle E. Burckhardt: Abbot, Otto. In: Sikart
• Rudolf Koella (Ed.): New Objectivity and Surrealism in Switzerland 1915–1940. Catalog of the exhibition in the Kunsthaus Winterthur. Benteli Verlag, Bern 1979, ISBN 3-7165-0334-7 .
• Dorothea Christ : The meaning of group 33. In: Basler Stadtbuch 1983, pp. 31–41.
• Agathe Straumann, Department of Education Basel-Stadt: Art for Basel. 75 years of Kunstkredit Basel. Schwabe Verlag, Basel 1994, ISBN 3-7965-0968-1 .
• Ivonne Höfliger (Ed.): Group 33. Editions Galerie zem Specht, Basel 1983, ISBN 3-85696-006-6 .

Web links

Commons : Otto Abt  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Publications by and about Otto Abt in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Literature by and about Otto Abt in the catalog of the German National Library
• Otto Abt in the personal dictionary of the canton of Basel-Landschaft
• Otto Abt at Galerie Carzaniga, Basel
• Otto Abt at Artnet
• Otto Abt In: Art Credit Collection

Individual evidence

1. ^ Robinson mural, Bruderholzschulhaus