Leo Brunschwiler

Leo Brunschwiler (* 1918 in Zuzwil , † 1977 in Gossau ) was a Swiss sculptor .

history

Leo Brunschwiler was born in 1918 as the son of a painter in Zuzwil. Unlike his three brothers, he did not choose to paint, but completed an apprenticeship as a stone sculptor in Küssnacht . From Olten he attended the Basel School of Applied Arts and gained his first craft experience with various masters in Solothurn and Wil . In 1945 he began to work for a Gossau sculptor, whose business he took over in 1952. As a self-employed Leo Brunschwiler was able to increasingly bring his artistic ideas into the tomb work. He was one of the sculptors who wanted to use fresh artistic impulses to make tomb creation an important field of expression for art again.

As part of the Association of Swiss Master Sculptors and Stonemasons, Brunschwiler has repeatedly been able to submit his work to a competent jury. For decades he took part in the so-called quality mark competition and published his works in the association's own journal Kunst und Stein .

Shortly before his death, Leo Brunschwiler received international recognition. For the Federal Garden Show in Stuttgart he could contribute in 1976 for the grave drawing contest two of the selected ten Swiss plants. In the same year he was supposed to create a number of family tombstones for a model cemetery in Luxembourg . But it stayed with the drafts, as Brunschwiler died shortly afterwards.

Works

In 1957 Leo Brunschwiler created a fountain for the Bündt school building in Waldkirch and in 1958 the altar in the chapel of Oberberg Castle . In the same year, the altars in the sister house and in the Marienheim in Gossau were created from his hand. In 1961 a fountain was added in Zuzwil and in 1968 the large fountain on the Gossau church square and a wooden sculpture in the carpenter's school were created. In 1970 he built the baptismal font in the Pauluskirche. The highlight of these monumental works is the wall sculpture in the hospital in Wil.

literature

• Elisabeth Keller-Schweizer: Life and work of the sculptor Leo Brunschwiler. In: Oberberger Blätter , 1979, Cavelti, Gossau, pp. 36-42.