Otto Roos

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Sculpture, shepherd with dog, Wettsteinpark, Riehen by Otto Roos (1887–1945)
Shepherd with dog, Wettsteinpark, Riehen

Otto Roos (born May 20, 1887 in Basel , † November 24, 1945 in Basel ) was a Swiss sculptor , painter and draftsman .

life and work

Otto Roos grew up as a craftsman's son with eight siblings in Basel. At the age of 14 he started an apprenticeship in wood carving and, against the resistance of his parents, attended the Basel School of Applied Arts from 1902 . There he took lessons from Fritz Voellmy , Carl Gutknecht and Emil Faesch (1865–1915).

From 1905 to 1906 Roos stayed in Berlin for ten months. There he worked as a wood sculptor for the royal-imperial court furniture factory in Landsbergerallee.

Roos then emigrated to southwest Canada in the province of Alberta, where he worked on a horse farm near Okotoks at the foot of the Rocky Mountains for almost two years. During this time his definitive decision to become an artist matured. Blood poisoning forced him to return to Basel.

As one of the first students, he took private painting lessons from Hermann Meyer (1878–1961) and made friends there with the artist Karl Dick (1884–1967). Through Dick Roos came into contact with Paul Basilius Barth , Jean Jacques Lüscher , Numa Donzé and Eduard Niethammer (1884–1967).

A scholarship from the Basler Kunstverein enabled Roos to study with Aristide Maillol at the Académie Ranson in Paris in the winter of 1909–1910 and befriends August Suter . Roos admired and adored Maillol all his life.

In 1911 Roos became a member of the Society of Swiss Painters and Sculptors and in 1913 represented Swiss sculpture with other Swiss artists at the Munich Secession . In the same year Roos received the Federal Art Grant . Roos was doubly gifted as a sculptor and painter.

As a painter, he belonged to the generation of the avant-garde Basel artists of the dark tones . During and after World War I, Roos and Paul Basilius Barth, Jean Jacques Lüscher, Numa Donzé, Heinrich Müller and Karl Dick formed the loose Basel artist group of dark-tone painters. This group of artists, known as “Basel's generation of classical painters”, was a revolutionary discovery for those interested in art in Basel. The group achieved their breakthrough in 1907 with a joint exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel. The artists fostered a friendly exchange with the Basel artist group Das neue Leben, founded in 1918, and with the “ Red-Blue ” artist group and had a decisive influence on the development of Basel painting from the turn of the century until the 1920s.

Otto Roos (1887–1945) sculptor, painter. Grave in the Hörnli cemetery
Grave in the Hörnli cemetery

His preference for overcast, rainy landscapes is expressed in his numerous paintings and drawings. As a sculptor, Roos created numerous portrait busts of prominent Basel personalities. Roos was friends with Hannes Meyer , Hermann Scherer , Rudolf Maeglin , Hans Berger Ernesto Schiess (1872–1919), Jakob August Heer and Max Uehlinger (1894–1981).

In 1933, a major Maillol exhibition co-organized by Roos took place in the Basel Kunsthalle.

Roos mainly worked in the Basel area. Some of his works emerged from the Basel-Stadt art credit . From 1936–1941 he was a board member of the Basler Kunstverein and, under Augusto Giacometti, a member of the Federal Art Commission.

On his 50th birthday, Roos received an anniversary exhibition from the Basler Kunstverein . During the Second World War Roos often stayed in Lüscherz . Many of his landscapes were created there and in the nearby Büren an der Aare internment camp, the largest internment camp in Switzerland, Roos was able to portray many internees.

Roos married Rosalie Ackermann (1888–1986), a teacher at the Basler Töchterschule , in 1920, and from 1927 lived with his wife in the vineyard area at Schlipf in Riehen .

Otto Roos found his final resting place in the Hörnli cemetery . In 1946, the Basler Kunstverein Roos honored extensive work in a memorial exhibition. Roos's written estate can be found in the documentation center of the Riehen municipal administration. The artistic estate is administered by the Otto Roos community of heirs.

In 1975 works by Otto Roos, Hans Sandreuter and Josef Keller (1923–1964) were shown in a commemorative exhibition in Riehen .

literature

  • First artist portfolio from the Swiss workshops. 16 original stone drawings by Paul Barth, Numa Donzé, Paul Hosch, JJ Lüscher, Heinrich Müller, Ed. Niethammer, Otto Roos, Ernst Schiess, Basel: Verlag Benno Schwabe & Cie, 1915

Web links

Commons : Otto Roos  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Collection, Kunstmuseum Basel: 1910, painting, Karl Dick, portrait of Roos. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
  2. ^ Collection, Kunstmuseum Basel: 1908, painting, rainy mood on Lake Biel. Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
  3. ^ Bernhard Schmidt-Schaller: With Otto Roos in the slip. In: Yearbook z'Rieche . 1965, Retrieved September 22, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Hans Krattiger : 1975, memorial exhibition. Retrieved October 26, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Roos, Otto
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sculptor, painter and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1887
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH November 24, 1945
Place of death Basel