Christian Rothacher
Christian Rothacher (born May 31, 1944 in Aarau ; † May 4, 2007 ibid) was a Swiss painter and conceptual artist . From 1967 to 1975, together with Heiner Kielholz , Hugo Suter , Max Matter, Markus Müller, Josef Herzog and Jakob Nielsen, he formed the Ziegelrain studio community in Aarau, where many of his most important works were created. The Ziegelrain studio community soon made the provincial town of Aarau the metropolis of the Swiss art avant-garde.
Initially working as a shoe designer at Bally , he then studied at the Zurich School of Applied Arts with Serge Stauffer and Hansjörg Mattmüller . Starting with Pop Art , he developed visual arts with "non-art" materials such as branches, furs or cords etc. in the manner of Arte Povera . Around 1970 his works show a turning point towards personal experience and mental fantasy. An increasing affinity for music shows u. a. a work in the Aargauer Kunsthaus : the immaterial music flows out of the holes of a bamboo flute and immediately materializes as a flowing black silk scarf, which in turn takes on the silhouette of a lascivious dancer.
He often alienated utensils that are in an artist's studio, e.g. B. palette, brush and pencil and thus asks fundamental questions about being an artist. To what extent is art autonomous? How far does art affect daily life? How does art affect me? Here a pool table takes on the outline of a pallet. There two pallets rise into the air like butterfly wings. A triangle of symbols flirtatiously spreads the legs. There flash triangular lightning bolts from the sky.
The confrontation with nature and culture began in his Arte Povera period at the Ziegelrain and has run like a red thread through his work ever since. Flowing natural forms of fur and feathers are contrasted with hard metallic cut forms, the “soft” nature contrasted with the “hard” culture. The naturally formless cloud is chiseled in hard marble or cast in bronze or carved into wood as a "cloud wheel".
After his time in Ziegelrain, he quietly developed his work. Three-dimensional objects are replaced by virtuoso watercolors, with the watercolor taking up more and more space in the last creative phase.
literature
- Stephan Kunz (Ed.): Ziegelrain '67 –'75. Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau 2006, ISBN 3-905004-27-5 .
- Stephan Kunz (Ed.): Christian Rothacher: We have the rings of fire. Scheidegger and Spiess, Zurich 2011, ISBN 978-3-85881-327-5 .
Web links
- Uli Däster: Rothacher, Christian. In: Sikart
- Aargauer Kunsthaus, exhibition 2010
- Exhibitions 1999-2009
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Rothacher, Christian |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss painter and concept artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 31, 1944 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Aarau |
| DATE OF DEATH | May 4, 2007 |
| Place of death | Aarau |