Giacometti Hall

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The Giacometti Hall in Zurich

The “Giacometti Hall” or “Blüemlihalle” is the entrance hall to the Zurich city police station , artistically designed by the Swiss painter Augusto Giacometti in the 1920s . The former vaulted cellar of an orphanage is now one of the most important sights in the city of Zurich and is a work of art of national importance.

history

The official building I , the entrance to the Giacometti Hall at the bottom right

When the former orphanage was converted into Amtshaus I, the new headquarters of the Zurich Police Department, the architect and former Zurich city architect Gustav Gull integrated the building into the entire “Urania” development between 1911 and 1914. To save space, he converted the former cellar of the orphanage into the entrance floor of Amtshaus I. Since the lighting conditions were not ideal there, an artist should brighten the rooms with artistic means and make them more friendly.

The then city councilor and later city president Emil Klöti awarded the contract for the beautification work to the painter Augusto Giacometti , who won first prize with his design among six artists living in Zurich. It took Giacometti a year to first transfer his designs in original size onto paper in color. The painting itself was done by the three young artists Jakob Gubler, Franz Riklin and Giuseppe Scartezzini under Giacometti's guidance in fresco and secco techniques. From July 1923 to March 1924 they designed the walls, vaulted ceilings and pillars of the new entrance foyer of the police station with floral ornaments and figural paintings, predominantly in warm, bright red and yellow tones. From the late summer of 1925 until the spring of 1926, Giacometti himself added six large figural murals . Finally, lighting fixtures specially designed for the hall were installed to illuminate the vault in a targeted manner and to bring out the colors to their best advantage. After the completion of the walkable work of art, it immediately attracted great public attention, made the artist known and paved the way for other important commissioned works in Zurich, such as the choir windows of the Grossmünster .

In the period between 1985 and 2000, the Giacometti Hall was extensively refurbished as part of the overall renovation of Amtshaus I, and another renovation took place in 2019. Since Giacometti had increasingly switched from fresco to secco painting due to the prevailing time pressure, problems arose the adhesion of the layers of paint, and the paintings urgently needed restoration after more than 50 years.

Painting

Fourteen vaulted caps , the belt arch between the pillars and the rectangular ceiling mirror at the main entrance are decoratively painted with recurring motifs such as gear-shaped rosettes, four-part leaf shapes or fantasy flowers. A white diamond band accompanies the ridges of the cross vaults . Each vault area is framed by an ocher-colored leaf frieze .

On the walls of the hall there are six large-format, floor-to-ceiling murals that, in a cyclical program of images in an abstract narrative style, span the processes of becoming and being that shape human life. At the entrance, the female figures of the " winemakers " and " reapers " symbolize the blessing of the fertile landscape on Lake Zurich . The “ bricklayers ” and “ carpenters ” depicted in the first transept stand for the growing city and building on solid ground. Another pair of figures are " The Magician " and " The Astronomer ", symbols for the spiritual professions, the human desire for the unearthly and the order and laws of the world.

reception

The hall named after the artist is considered one of his most important works today. It is described as a “work of art of national importance”, “an important Swiss work of art of the 20th century” and “the most beautiful entrance to a police station”. Today the Giacometti Hall, affectionately known as the “Blüemlihalle” by the city's residents because of the numerous floral ornaments, is one of the most important sights in Zurich.

The city of Zurich published a multi-page colored flyer with the title “Blüemlihalle. A cellar vault as a bright garden of colors »with German and English texts.

accessibility

The Giacometti Hall at Bahnhofquai 3 can be visited every day. For security reasons, an identification document must be handed in at the reception of the city police before entering the hall.

literature

  • Dieter Nivergeld, Pietro Maggi: The Giacometti Hall in the Amtshaus I in Zurich . In: Swiss Art Guide GSK . tape 682/683 . Bern 2000, ISBN 3-85782-682-7 .
  • Christine Barraud Wiener, Peter Jezler : The art monuments of the canton of Zurich. New edition . tape I . Bern 1999.
  • Regine Abegg, Christine Barraud Wiener: The art monuments of the canton of Zurich. New edition . tape II.I . Bern 2002.
  • Bice Curiger : Giacometti Hall in the administration building I . In: Werk, Bauen + Wohnen . tape 96 , no. 7–8 , 2009, pp. 47 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-131037 .

Web links

  • City of Zurich (Ed.): Blüemlihalle. A cellar vault as a bright color garden . 2018 (German, English, online [PDF] flyer with numerous color photos).

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Giacometti Hall. Zurich Tourism, 2018, accessed on September 30, 2019 .
  2. ↑ Elizabeth Crettaz-Stürzel: Gull, Gustav. In: Historical Lexicon of Switzerland .
  3. ^ A b c Erwin Poeschel: The frescoes by Augusto Giacometti in the Amtshaus I of the city of Zurich . In: Das Werk: Architektur und Kunst = L'oeuvre: architecture et art . tape 13 , no. 11 , 1926, pp. 333–340 , doi : 10.5169 / seals-81785 (with black and white images of all murals).
  4. ↑ a b c Augusto Giacometti entrance hall. In: City of Zurich Security Department. November 22, 2018, accessed September 30, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Zurich: The "Blüemlihalle" is blooming again. Baublatt , May 30, 2019, accessed September 30, 2019 .
  6. ^ City of Zurich (ed.): Blüemlihalle. A cellar vault as a bright color garden . 2018 (German, English, flyer, online [PDF]).

Coordinates: 47 ° 22 '30.7 "  N , 8 ° 32' 29.1"  E ; CH1903:  683 286  /  247736