Jo Achermann

Josef Anton "Jo" Achermann (born May 27, 1954 in Stans , Switzerland ) is a Swiss sculptor . Since 1994 he has been professor for sculptural design at the Brandenburg Technical University (BTU) in Cottbus . After training as a sculptor with Günther Uecker in Düsseldorf, he made a name for himself with large-scale sculptures in exhibitions and in public spaces.

biography

Jo Achermann was born on May 27, 1954 in Stans in the Swiss canton of Nidwalden . Between 1969 and 1976 the man from Stans did an apprenticeship as a cheese maker and also worked in this profession. In the summer of 1976 he attended the preliminary course in plastic design with Anton Egloff at the Lucerne School of Design. From 1980, Jo Achermann studied sculpture at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf under Professor Günther Uecker. The artist received the PS1 scholarship from the Art Academy in Düsseldorf in 1983, which allowed him to spend a year in the studio in New York in 1984. That year he received the Bernhard Hoetger Prize . As a master student of Professor Günther Uecker, he received the Swiss Federal Art Scholarship in 1986/87. During his time as a master class student at the Art Academy in Düsseldorf, he was able to present his first solo exhibition Am Saar Staden to the public in the Stadtgalerie in Saarbrücken. The first solo exhibition in Switzerland took place under the name Raumplastik in the Galerie Chäslager in Stans in 1988. From 1990 to 1993, Jo Achermann had a teaching position for sculpture at the Düsseldorf Art Academy. In 1994 the artist was appointed professor for sculpture, chair of sculptural design at the Brandenburg University of Technology in Cottbus . Since 2008, the subject of drawing and painting has also been part of the chair for sculptural design at the BTU Cottbus.

In 2000, Martin Wallimann published a book with a comprehensive description of his artistic work, his artistic role models and his way of thinking in six conversations with Fabrizio Brentini .

Jo Achermann is married to the architect Agata Pekkacz, with whom he has a son. The artist lives with his family in Berlin-Charlottenburg . He also lives in Cottbus and Kerns , Switzerland.

Artistic creation

Jo Achermann uses wood almost without exception for his sculptural works. For his first work, he cut the tree trunks with a chainsaw into rectangular profiles, later he mainly worked with debarked tree trunks. The artist increasingly uses machine-cut beams and battens, industrial mass-produced goods. His work in interiors often takes up the whole room, the logs are mostly locked between the ceiling, floor and walls. He captures his mostly temporary works photographically in order to represent his spatial intentions. Parallel to the sculptural work, he also makes wood prints.

Diverse impressions influence the artist's work: the wooden churches in northern and eastern Europe, as well as the wooden architecture after 1980, the work of Christo and Jeanne-Claude , the figurative work of Ernst Barlach , Katsura Funakoshi , Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , Hermann Scherer , Georg Baselitz , Josef Felix Müller and Stephan Balkenhol . The preoccupation with the work of Constantin Brancusi was an important part of his career as an artist.

Teaching

Jo Achermann teaches architecture students at the BTU Cottbus in sculptural and artistic design. Just as his teacher Günther Uecker left the academy with his students and went to unusual places (1987 on the premises of the Society for Radiation and Environmental Research in Munich), Jo Achermann's students worked on applied work in the clinics of Niederlausitz to upgrade the interior.

In 2004, the rooms, corridors, treatment rooms and lettering in the children's clinic in Niederlausitz in Lauchammer were developed by his students under the motto The world is round .

In 2006 he and his students carried out further work in the Niederlausitz Clinic, Geriatrics Department . They worked according to the motto: The world is colorful, the world is black and white .

In 2008/2009, the Chair of Plastic Design at the BTU Cottbus was asked to design the interior of the Clinic for Psychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine and Psychotherapy at the Niederlausitz Clinic. The spectrum of the installed works ranges from painting to photography to furniture objects.

Working in public space

Jo Achermann has created a number of artistic works made of wood in public spaces, especially in Central Switzerland.

• 1984 Culture box , Obwalden Cantonal Hospital, Sarnen
• 1988 12 oaks , Faith Mountain
• 1992 Column hall , Kerns school building
• 1992 Sensor , industrial school, Lucerne
• 1997 Tower , wood printing , UBS (Swiss Banking Company), Stans
• 2001 Passage , entrance to the main building of the BTU Cottbus, Cottbus
• 2003 Horizons interwoven, Lorzen level, Zug
• 2004 Energy center , center development, Kerns
• 2009 Untitled , entrance to the Niederlausitz Clinic, Senftenberg

Working on churches

• 1993 Choir room design, Catholic Church, Oensingen
• 1994 Choir room design, Catholic Church, St. Niklausen near Kerns
• 1996 Altar and Ambo, Catholic Church, Gurtnellen-Wyler
• 2001 Choir room design, Catholic Church, Vitznau
• 2003 Catholic Church of St. Canisius, Berlin

Selected solo exhibitions

• 1986 Am Saar Staden , Saarbrücken City Gallery
• 1988 Spatial sculpture , Chäslager Gallery, Stans
• 1989 Pavilion , Gallery Annelie Brusten, Wuppertal
• 1991 Zwischenraum , Kunsthaus, Zug
• 1992 BWA Awangarda (Breslau Art Gallery, Wrocław, PL)
• 1994 Galerie b, Lucerne
• 1995 Inside room , Hofmatt Gallery, Sarnen
• 1997 Staircase , Gallery Annelie Brusten, Wuppertal
• 1997 eight days. Wood prints , Kunstraum old EWO headquarters, Giswil
• 1997 Salt magazine , Nidwalden Museum, Stans
• 2001 Gallery Marianne Grob, Berlin
• 2001 Between-Through Brandenburg Art Collections, Cottbus
• 2003 Horizons , Kunsthaus Zug, Zug
• 2004 Room views , Museum Bruder Klaus, Sachseln
• 2006 Countdown 01-00 , Heidelberger Kunstverein , Heidelberg
• 2007 Interior room II, Hofmatt Gallery, Sarnen
• 2009 horizontal-vertical , Art Museum Spendhaus, Reutlingen
• 2010 Gallery Marianne Grob, Berlin

Selected group exhibitions

• 1982 Young sculptors in Düsseldorf , Sculpture Park Seestern, Düsseldorf
• 1985 Uecker and his students: Works from the Glarnerland , Tschudi Gallery , Glarus
• 1985 Der Baum , Kunstverein, Heidelberg
• 1986 Sculptures - Structures , Kunstverein, Kronach
• 1987 10 young sculptors , Federal Garden Show, Düsseldorf
• 1988 follow-up exhibition , Landenberg, Sarnen
• 1990 International Art Expo , Dorothea van der Koelen Gallery, Chicago
• 1994 Sequences , Art Museum, Olten
• 1995 Swiss sculpture exhibition , Môtieres
• 1997 100 works of art. 2nd art exhibition of the state of Brandenburg , exhibition center, Cottbus
• 2011 Best of Papa Jo's , Art Museum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus

swell

• Interwoven horizons. Ed .: Kunsthaus Zug, 2008, ISBN 978-3-906545-13-4
• Jo Achermann. Edited by BDN consulting, Zug, 2008, ISBN 978-3-9523499-0-8
• Jo Achermann salt magazine. Ed .: Nidwaldner Museum 1997, ISBN 3-9521223-2-7
• Best of Papa Jo's. Verlag Martin Wallimann, 2011, ISBN 978-3-905969-02-3
• Nadine Franci: Achermann, Jo. In: Sikart (as of 2006)
• Short biography at Kulturfenster.ch (PDF; 44 kB)
• Brief profile of Prof. Jo Achermann

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Jo Achermann / Wood in Architecture and Art. Verlag Martin Wallimann, 2000, ISBN 3-908713-03-X
2. ↑ ^{a b} Best of Papa Jo's. Verlag Martin Wallimann, 2011 ISBN 978-3-905969-02-3
3. ↑ Exhibitions: Nadine Franci: Achermann, Jo. In: Sikart (status: 2006), accessed on August 21, 2015.
4. ↑ Exhibitions: Nadine Franci: Achermann, Jo. In: Sikart (status: 2006), accessed on August 21, 2015.
5. ↑ Exhibitions 2011, DKW Cottbus . Retrieved April 24, 2014.