Alfons Bürgler

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Alfons Bürgler, 2003

Alfons Bürgler (born January 9, 1936 in Illgau ) is a Swiss artist . His work techniques include acrylic and oil painting , watercolor , drawing, glass engraving, collage , sculpture, and photography.

Life

Body writing, 1999, ink on paper on wood. 197 cm x 50 cm

Bürgler grew up as the sixth of eleven children in Illgau, a small mountain village above the Muotatal, as the son of a shoemaker. As a teenager he discovered his passion for drawing. His first job as a tailor took him to French and Italian Switzerland for longer stays. In 1967 he married the singer Margrith Suter; they had two daughters. He took a part-time position in an architecture firm and attended art schools in Zurich and Lucerne.

From 1984 Alfons Bürger worked as a freelance artist. He went on numerous study trips abroad. From 1993, he and his wife went their separate ways. Alfons Bürgler moved into a small wooden hut on the outskirts of Goldau , which he lived in until 1999, when he moved to Steinen . Numerous exhibitions and publications made him known to a wider public. He received orders for the artistic enrichment of private or public buildings.

Bürgler lives and works in Steinen.

plant

Bürgler acquired most of his artistic knowledge and skills autodidactically . He maintained an expressive-realistic style until the second half of the 1980s. During his travels on four continents he continues to create travel sketches and watercolors. From 1990 he created non-representational or abstract images with a high degree of color sensitivity. Characteristic of this phase, as of the later stylized rows of figures, is his sense of the pictorial rhythm.

Since the late nineties, the painter and draftsman has been focusing on the theme of figures lined up, often one on top of the other. Even if he brings many people together in his pictures, it is never about a crowd, but always about a community. "The individual figure is a bundle of energy filled with joie de vivre that gives expression to its excess strength in a playful way."

Project Hünenberg

The Malergast project was initiated by the Hünenberg municipal council , whereupon the Hünenberg cultural group invited Bürgler to use a large hall in the community center as a studio during 2002. The community gave him a scholarship for those twelve months and organized several events.

In return he undertook to document the life of the community and to open his studio once a week to anyone interested. He sketched and drew on many occasions and created a large number of pictures and objects in his studio, which were presented to the public at the end of 2002.

Tree figures

Tree figure, 2012, bronze. Height 38 cm

In 2003 Bürgler discovered a small “tree figure” in a bush, a small branch with two “legs” and two “arms”. The chance find was the beginning of a series of sculptures that still occupies him today. For these sculptures he does not need the tools typical of wood sculptors, but only a saw and pruning shears: he saws his tree figures from bushes and trees that he finds in hedges and on the edges of forests. He specifically searches bush and tree branches for shapes that he can turn into figures when rotated 180 degrees. The smallest of the tree figures are a few centimeters high, the largest around three meters. He had some of the figures cast in bronze in the art foundry St. Gallen and the art foundry Gebrüder Jäger Pfäffikon SZ. These figures reflect Bürgler's unbroken passion for dance.

In 2007, he set up a small private museum open to the public in Steinen for his tree figure sculptures, the "Tree Figure Cabinet".

architectural art

Glass wall for the Hirslandenklinik St. Anna in Lucerne (detail), 2007

Since 2001, Bürgler has realized many large and small orders for art in buildings in private and semi-private spaces. Numerous glass works of art were carried out in collaboration with his nephew, Hannes Bürgler.

Many of Bürgler's works were bought by public institutions such as cantons and municipalities and by institutions and companies and exhibited in public spaces.

Works (selection)

  • Einsiedeln Hospital / New Health Center: water feature, glass walls entrance hall, stairwell. 2005-2006
  • Medical Center Steinen SZ : Interior Design, 2006–2008
  • Marketing Business Center, Pfäffikon SZ : interior design corridors, reception, cafeteria. 2006-2008
  • Gymnasium Menzingen ZG , music room: 5-part wall object, 2007
  • Hirslandenklinik St. Anna, Lucerne : glass walls entrance hall, restaurant, wall painting. 2007-2008
  • School building stones SZ: interior design. 2009
  • Psychiatric Clinic Zugersee, Oberwil near Zug : corridor, wall objects, 16-part work. 2008
  • Markant Foundation, Au in Steinen SZ retirement home: Corridor design. 2009
  • Lucerne train station , Hirslandenklinik: wall paintings, wall objects, glass walls, glass doors. 2009-2011
  • Seerestaurant Rössli, Hurden : entrance door, facade window, 2010
  • Hirslandenklinik St. Anna, Lucerne: glass facades, main entrance, reception desk, reception hall. 2011–2012
  • Lützelmatt Medical Center, Lucerne: Glass closures and doors, wall objects. 2011–2012
  • Lucerne train station , Hirslandenklinik: wall paintings, partition walls, glass doors and glass closures. 2012-2013

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • Schwyz, Ital Reding-Hofstatt: Drawings. 1986
  • Lucerne, Galerie Twerenbold: Graphic works. 1986
  • Astano , Galleria Abissinia: watercolors, drawings. 1990
  • Zurich, AZ Hottingen gallery: drawings, painting. 1994
  • Männedorf, Boldern Education Center: Paintings on sheets. 1994
  • Arth, Galerie Meier: Paintings on sheets and paper. 1996
  • Schwyz, Forum of Swiss History: Two installations. 1999
  • Hünenberg, community center: body writings, drawings, sketches. 2001
  • Barcelona, ​​Galeria Sala Barna: pictures on paper and wood. 2005
  • Arth, Galerie Meier: body writing on canvas and paper. 2006
  • Oberrohrdorf, Zänteschüür: Retrospective. 2007
  • Brunnen, Galerie am Leewasser: body fonts, pictures and objects
  • Stones, tree figure cabinet: figures made of wood and bronze. (2008 opening, since then permanent presentation)
  • Lucerne, PricewaterhouseCoopers AG: Images and objects. 2010
  • Zurich, Galerie am Schanzengraben: Objects. 2011
  • Schwyz, Ital Reding-Hofstatt: Retrospective for the 75th birthday. 2011

Bibliographies and work catalogs (selection)

  • Alfons Bürgler , monograph. Triner-Verlag, Schwyz. With texts by Walter Hintermann and Alfons Bürgler. Released in 2000.
  • Alfons Bürgler, selection of works 2001 to 2004 . Catalog. Triner Verlag, Schwyz. With text by Walter Hintermann. Released in 2004.
  • Glaskunstambau, Alfons Bürgler / Hannes Bürgler . Brochure. Triner-Verlag, Schwyz. With text by Hannes Bürgler. Released in 2008.
  • Alfons Bürgler, BAUMFIGUREN , Triner-Verlag, Schwyz. With texts by Peter Killer, Prisca Anderhub, Dr. Josef Bättig, Thérèse Nylén and Theo Weber. Released in 2008.

Web links

Commons : Alfons Bürgler  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ A detailed biography in: Alfons Bürgler , monograph. Triner-Verlag, Schwyz. With texts by Walter Hintermann and Alfons Bürgler. Released in 2000.
  2. ↑ Quoted from Peter Killer: Moveor ergo sum . In: Alfons Bürgler: tree figures. Triner-Verlag Schwyz 2008, unpaginated.
  3. ^ Neue Zuger Zeitung: "With the eyes of an artist", April 13, 2002 and Zuger Presse: "Malergast: Artists looked over their shoulders", May 14, 2002
  4. ↑ Alfons Bürgler, “Children of Hünenberg”, Triner-Verlag Schwyz, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Bürgler, Alfons
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss artist
DATE OF BIRTH January 9, 1936
PLACE OF BIRTH Illgau SZ