Peter Travaglini
.JPG)
Peter (Piero) Travaglini, (born March 2, 1927 in Bern , † January 31, 2015 in Büren an der Aare ) was a Swiss painter , sculptor , sculptor and graphic artist . His pioneering role as a Swiss pop art artist in the 1970s was central .
life and work
After finishing school, Travaglini completed an apprenticeship as a painter and plasterer from 1943 to 1946, attending the Solothurn trade school and, in 1944, the Vevey School of Applied Arts. From 1946 to 1949 he attended the Accademia di Belle Arti di Brera in Milan. From 1948 he took up residence in his hometown Vira (Gambarogno) and married Hanni Sommer. They had seven children together. Since 1950 his main residence has been in Büren an der Aare .
In addition to working in his father's painting business, he created representational oil paintings, which were exhibited in Grenchen , Solothurn and Lugano . In 1953, Travaglini made his first sculptures in limestone and a bronze relief for the town hall of the municipality of Büren an der Aare. A sandstone well and a smaller limestone well followed in Meienried near Büren. Travaglini went on study trips to Italy, France and Germany.
The order for a monumental concrete glass window for the Roman Catholic Church in Lyss in 1958 marked the beginning of a long series of public commissioned works and led him to work as a freelance artist.
In the 1960s, Travaglini approached tachistic and abstract-expressive trends. The first aluminum casts and monotypes followed. Exhibitions led him with fellow artists a. a. to Bochum, Cologne, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Berlin and Ljubljana. In 1968 he participated in the sculpture show he helped initiate in Vira (Gambarogno) for the first time with an oversized granite chain and in 1970 in the Biel / Bienne plastic exhibition with a 30-meter-long floating chain on Lake Biel. Travaglini received international recognition primarily through participation in the exhibition The Swiss Avant Garde in New York (1971), in Swiss Art Today in Milan, Graz, Olten, Bochum (1972), in the Biennale di Venezia (1976) and in the Rotonda della Besana , Milan (1972/1980).
At the Tell 73 exhibition , Travaglini was present throughout Switzerland with the floating monumental sculpture Tell's apple shot . In 1976, the artist founded the Travaglini Dualis Club , the members of which are symbolically linked by bronze chain links. From 1976 he taught at the International Academy for Fine Arts, IABK in Niederbipp, then at the Künstlerhaus Solothurn, which he co-founded . In the early 1980s he became a member of the art commissions of the canton of Bern and the city of Biel. In 2007 a double exhibition took place in the Kunsthaus Grenchen and in Büren an der Aare on his 80th birthday. Travaglini also participated several times in Art Basel , in outdoor sculpture exhibitions in Vira (Gambarogno), in the Swiss sculpture exhibition in Biel, in exhibitions in Center PasquArt, Biel , in annual exhibitions in Solothurn and Biel, and in the International Triennale for Original Graphics , Grenchen .
From the early 1970s he was President of the Old Town Commission Büren an der Aare for 20 years and worked as a restorer. He was also responsible for the redesign of the wooden bridge and the color map of the old town facades in Büren. A large part of the artistic estate, the work drawings, the work documentation and graphics to complete the collection were donated to the Kunsthaus Grenchen in 2017 . This organized a memorial exhibition and the book launch for the first monograph on Peter Travaglini.
The entire stained glass estate of Peter Travaglini was also donated to the Swiss Research Center for Glass Painting and Glass Art (vitrocentre) in Romont FR. The virtual research room vitrosearch, which went online in December 2017, continuously publishes its inventory.
The mastery of a wide variety of techniques and materials such as bronze, aluminum and wood, concrete, granite and brick forms the basis for Travaglini's works; he deliberately did not draw a line between free art and handicrafts. The symbolic contrast between stone and water came to the fore in over 70 fountains. Commissioned art became a central concern of Travaglini, but it was always in close interaction with free creativity; his workbooks testify to this. The artist's love of play and experimentation led in the most varied of directions: carpets, flags, ceramics, medals, coins, pins and graphic designs. The trademark of Travaglini since the early 1970s has been the silhouette-like typed human figure, which, as a “case man”, remains dependent on its mold. With 49 larger-than-life concrete figures, the design of the surroundings of the Witzwil prison from 1983 is a key work of the artist.
Works in public space (selection)
- Grenchen: Kunsthaus Grenchen collection, bronze sculpture in front of the ETA building
- Bellach: Schulhausplatz: concrete number wall
- Urtenen-Schönbühl, village center: design of the square with a fountain
- Zurich: Parish hall on the Stauffacher
- Biel, Children's Hospital Wildermeth: concrete animals, concrete wells, design of the square
- Lyss, Church of St. Maria : glass concrete window u. a.
- Urdorf, Church of Brother Klaus : glass concrete window a. a.
- Horgen, St. Josef Church : Design of the altar area during the renovation in 1978
- Zurich-Leimbach, Maria-Hilf church : artistic furnishings
- Schönenberg, Church of the Holy Family : stained glass windows and design of the altar area
- Lugano, Giardino Belvedere: granite chain and granite rhinoceros
Other important works are owned by the cantons of Bern, Schwyz and Ticino, the cities of Bern, Biel, Grenchen, Lugano, Olten, the museums in Bochum / Germany, Grenchen and Lugano.
Literature (selection)
- Peter Killer: Peter Travaglini - painter - sculptor - graphic artist monograph, editionTRAVAMAERK, Pieterlen 2017. ISBN 978-3-033-06255-9
- Peter Keller: seek - try - realize. Biographical essay. 2007.
- Fine arts in the canton of Solothurn. Ed .: Cantonal cultural center Palais Besenval . Solothurn 1995.
- Mario Cortesi, Ludwig Herrmann: The spirit of Biel. [Video]. Gassmann, Biel 1994.
- Gerald Lechner: Travaglini's Art. In: Grenchner Jahrbuch, 1992.
- Peter Killer: Kunstverein Biel - encounters in the studio. 1991.
- Andreas Meier: Piero Travaglini. Concrete work 1961–1990. Gustav Hunziker, Biel 1990.
- Marcel Joray: Le béton in l'art contemporain. Concrete in contemporary art. Concrete in contemporary art. Editions du Griffon, Neuchâtel 1987. 2 vol.
- Markus Furrer. Gian Pedretti. Rolf Spinnler. Peter Travaglini. Wolfgang Zät. Martin Ziegelmüller . The Kunstverein Biel visits Bochum. Hattingen-Blankenstein, Bochum Art Association. House Kemenade, 1987. (Text: Andreas Meier)
- Solothurn contemporary art. Kunstmuseum Olten , Stadthaus Olten, 1981. [Text:] Paul Meier. Olten 1981.
- Rosmarie Oswald: Four figures by Peter Travaglini . In: Oltner Neujahrsblätter , Vol. 70, 2012, pp. 62–63.
- Rosmarie Oswald: Farewell to Peter Travaglini . In Oltner Neujahrsblätter, Vol. 74, 2016, p. 109.
Web links
- Homepage of Peter Travaglini
- Biographical and bibliographical information on Peter Travaglini at www.sokultur.ch
- Collection in the vitrosearch database
Individual evidence
- ^ Peter Travaglini. In: Sikart
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Travaglini, Peter |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Travaglini, Piero |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss painter, sculptor, sculptor and graphic artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | March 2, 1927 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Bern |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 31, 2015 |
| Place of death | Büren on the Aare |