Annemie Fontana
Annemie Fontana (born December 14, 1925 in Versoix , Canton Geneva , † October 25, 2002 in Zurich ), actually Anne-Marie Jacqueline Fontana , was a Swiss artist and sculptor . She was discovered and promoted by Alois Carigiet .
Life
birth
She was born as the daughter of the painter Alois Fontana . Shortly after she was born in Versoix, she came to Zurich.
Education and professional career
From 1941 to 1944 Annemie Fontana reluctantly completed an apprenticeship as a tailor in Gaby Jouval's haute couture atelier . This training should enable her to have a secure income. Immediately afterwards, from 1944 to 1950, she enjoyed an apprenticeship as a ceramist at the Gebrüder Müller company in Lucerne . She then worked for an architect as a model maker for two years.
Artistic career
After completing her apprenticeship in 1950, Annemie Fontana moved into her first studio in the "Alte Mühle" on Mühlebachstrasse, where she continued her autodidactic training in sculpture until 1955. Since 1951 she took part in the Christmas exhibitions in the Helmhaus . In 1954 she exhibited sculptures in Gallery 16. In 1956 she received a federal grant and in 1958 a city of Zurich grant. In 1958 she took part in the exhibition "Young Zurich Artists". According to the plans and under the direction of Alois Carigiet , she made a wall mosaic in the technical vocational school in Zurich for two years . To do this, she independently collected stones and polished them. It was the first work as an artist that fully secured her livelihood. Thereupon she said goodbye to her main job as a seamstress, in which she resolutely sold her sewing machine. This was followed by exhibitions in various locations in Switzerland. In 1962 she received a scholarship from the Canton of Zurich. She had solo and group exhibitions mainly in the Zurich area and some in Switzerland as well as several international group exhibitions in Florence (1967), The Hague (1968), Tel Aviv (1972), Haifa , Jerusalem , Budapest , Antwerp (1973), Lindau (1977) and again Budapest (1978).
Her works include animal sculptures, abstract polyester sculptures (called "phantoms"), large sculptures made of metal and polyester, metal heads, as well as pictorial works such as graphics and screen prints .
death
She died on October 25, 2002 in Zurich.
Works (selection)
- 1964 "Water organ" (fountain) at the Montalin school building in Chur
- 1969 Döltschihalde development, Zurich
- 1969–1972 " Sirius " (fountain) on Escher-Wyss-Platz , Zurich
- 1969–1972 “Sitzmuschel” in the Mythenquai swimming pool, Zurich
- 1974 “Sunrise” (sculpture) at the Hardhof sports field, Zurich
- 1974 “Seating waves” in the Zumikon swimming pool
- 1980–1983 “Durchstep” (sculpture) at the Bülach Cantonal School
- 1995–1996 “Sesame Door and Bronze Sculpture” in the Widder Hotel, Zurich
«Water organ» at the Montalin school building in Chur
Sculpture Döltschihalde
"Sirius" fountain
"Seat shell" in the Mythenquai lido
Counter-sculpture "Sunrise" at the Hardhof sports field
"Seat wave"
"Step through" at the canton school in Bülach
"Water organ"
In 1963 Annemie Fontana won first prize in an art-in-architecture competition and was commissioned to build a fountain at the Montalin schoolhouse in Chur . This was the artist's first public work project.
The "water organ" built in 1964 is a fountain sculpture in the center of the school building square. The sculpture consists of two vertical bundles of brass tubes with different degrees of kink. The bundles fan out a little at the top and a water fountain spurts out in the middle. The sculpture stands on a base in a large circular water basin and thus reaches a height of 3.5 meters.
Coordinates: 759 883 / 191 545
Sculpture in the Döltschihalde
The first public work in Zurich, dated 1969, is in the Döltschihalde development (house numbers 20–26). It is a polyester plastic on a base, which stands on a small square that is unofficially known as the "Köbi Kuhn Platz WM 2006". The sculpture consists of a yellow, upright disc, which is flanked by two symmetrical, half-teardrop-shaped bodies standing on the tip of the drop. These are red on the inside and green on the outside. The semi-teardrop-shaped bodies also have indentations in a blue color, offset by 90 degrees to the axis of rotation.
Coordinates: 680 017 / 246426
"Sirius"
- See: Sirius (fountain)
Sirius is a fountain by Annemie Fontana. It is one of the artist's most famous works. The fountain formerly stood on Escher-Wyss-Platz in Zurich and was designed by her for this square. On March 18, 2009 the fountain sculpture was dismantled. In October and November 2012 it was rebuilt in front of the Hallenstadion .
"Seat shell"
For the Mythenquai lido in Zurich, Annemie Fontana developed a walk-in “seat shell” made of polyester. This form, based on nature, appears to visitors as an enlarged shell , although it is a very abstract form. It is set up near the toddler pool and is three meters high. The outside of the sculpture is white and has a yellow staircase-shaped interior and is open to the children's pool. On the occasion of the new construction of the children's area in the years 2002 to 2004, the sculpture was renovated and optically integrated into the design in order to give it even more significance.
Coordinates: 682 837 / 245270
«Sunrise»
«Sunrise» is a counter-sculpture to the «Sirius» sculpture, erected in 1974. It consists of the reused negative form of the fountain sculpture. The work of art is formed from two independent stair-like wings made of a rich and dark cyan polyester with a total width of six meters. One wing is on the ground, the other is upright. The sculpture stands next to the tennis courts of the Hardhof sports field in Zurich.
Coordinates: 680101 / 249976
"Seat waves"
Between 1972 and 1974, Annemie Fontana designed several blue and cyan-colored “seat waves” for the Juch bathing establishment in her home town of Zumikon. These are wave-shaped seating, each with two or four recesses, which were set up in the bathing establishment near the swimming pools and toddlers' pools. She also made a double stele from the same waves . It consists of two interlocking, 7.2 meter high waves that were set up next to the restaurant. One wave is beige and the other is white.
Coordinates: 689 328 / 243008
"Step through"
Annemie Fontana was commissioned to erect a sculpture on the area of the Zürcher Unterland canton school in Bülach, built by Hans Knecht . The sculpture “ Durchgang ” is a 35-ton granite ball that was placed on a grassy mound. The accessible sphere is perforated in a cross shape and thus has two covered corridors. Your creative time lasted from 1980 to 1983.
The ball is a symbol of an oppressive experience during Annemie Fontana's school days in the Letten schoolhouse in Zurich. She sat for a while under the relief of the covered school entrance until she dared to enter the school. The work of art is now a symbol for this transcendental experience. The ball is the symbol for the world of the artist and asks the visitor to make the transition from the private, protected world to the public school world in this world, as Annemie Fontana had to experience every day during her school days.
Coordinates: 683 564 / 263 606
"Sesame door and bronze sculpture"
The "Sesame Door and Bronze Sculpture" is a diptych consisting of two metallic pictures with a three-dimensional geometric design, hung on top of one another. One picture appears like the negative of the other picture hung upside down. In the center of the picture is a square on the shorter parallel side of an isosceles trapezoid . These lie on three rectangular levels that form a flat step pyramid, which goes up in one picture and down in the other. The diptych is located in the entrance area of the Widder Saal.
Coordinates: 683 173 / 247435
Fontana Gränacher Foundation
Annemie Fontana stipulated in her will that after her death a foundation for eligible artists should be set up. The foundation was entered in the commercial register in spring 2003 and supports the work of the artists with an annual art prize of CHF 20,000. Only artists who are members of the SGBK Swiss Society of Visual Artists or of the visarte professional association for visual art-Switzerland will be honored.
Web links
- Kathrin Frauenfelder: Fontana, Annemie. In: Sikart
- Literature by and about Annemie Fontana in the catalog of the German National Library
- Obituary for Annemie Fontana In: SGBK
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b death certificate of the civil registry district of Zurich, November 7, 2002, volume 10, p. 340, no. 3585
- ↑ a b c d e Irene Fröhlich: Annemie Fontana, A Grisons woman on a thorny artist path . In: Neue Bündner Zeitung , column “Die Bündnerin”, March 7, 1968
- ↑ a b c d e Swiss Federal Archives , curriculum vitae in dossier E3010A # 1991/226 # 350 * Fontana Annemie, 1962
- ^ The wall mosaic by Alois Carigiet (PDF; 736 kB), accessed July 22, 2013
- ^ Rib., Das Wesen der Form , in: Neue Zürcher Zeitung, October 31, 2008
- ↑ Portrait ( Memento of the original from February 19, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed August 25, 2008.
- ↑ a b c d e Fritz Billeter , Annemie Fontana , ABC-Verlag, Zurich, 1996, ISBN 3-85504-160-1
- ↑ a b Written and telephone information from the Office for Buildings, Art and Building / Public Space, 23 September 2008
- ^ Hans Neuburg, Annemie Fontana, Sculptures and Graphics , ABC Verlag Zürich, Zürich 1979, ISBN 3-85504-057-5
- ↑ Leaflet from the building construction office on the renovation of the children's area in the Mythenquai lido, May 2004 ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Email with images from the Widder Hotel, September 29, 2008
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Fontana, Annemie |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Fontana, Anne-Marie Jacqueline |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss artist and sculptor |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 14, 1925 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Versoix , Switzerland |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 25, 2002 |
| Place of death | Zurich |