Ronald Kocher

Ronald Kocher (born March 15, 1929 in Büren an der Aare ) is a Swiss painter , graphic artist , sculptor and non-fiction author.

Career

Kocher attended the Progymnasium and Gymnasium Bern from 1940 to 1945 . This was followed by a visit to the cantonal technical center in Biel from 1945 to 1948, followed by drawing courses at the Bern industrial school and, in 1951, a year of apprenticeship in graphics at the master school for designing craft in Düsseldorf . He then attended the private painting school of Max Rudolf von Mühlenen in Switzerland from 1952 to 1955 . During an almost five-year stay in Paris , he studied with Marcel Gromaire and at the Grande Chaumière . 1955 to 58 he attended the Paris State Academy Department of Applied Arts (Marcel Gromaire). From 1958 to 1960 he created his own animal designs ( gargouilles ) for the cathedral of Metz in France for the sculptor Joël Martel .

Returned to Switzerland in 1960, he initially worked as a graphic artist and founded his own painting school.

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He gave painting courses at the Migros Club School , for the workforce of the Wander AG company , at the Coop Bern leisure center and for 25 years at the Bern Adult Education Center . This activity resulted in a textbook entitled Seeing, Drawing, Painting , the second edition of which was published in 1988. In addition, Kocher continued to work as a freelance painter and graphic artist. During his stay in Paris he had dealt with tapestries . His work lists over forty objects of this type. The sequence of these mostly large-format tapestries shows the progression to a colored unity, a two-dimensional bond and a decorative effect; their peculiarity is based on the rhythmically swinging movement of non-representational lines and color fields. Kocher also cultivates sculptural work, with figurative, mostly female figures as moving large and small sculptures, abstract steles and reliefs. Participation in restoration work in seven churches in the cantons of Bern and Basel. Restoration of a large mural by Eduard Otto Renggli in the Hobby Hotel Terrasse in Vitznau.

Kocher designed murals in the new PTT buildings in Gummen BE and Ostermundigen . It was the identification of the staircases and the floor division of the two large material centers. A simple colored band in the flights of stairs and the different colors on the floors provide orientation. A tapestry-type ornament remains in the civil defense facility in Gummen BE.

Designs around 50 posters as a trained graphic artist. Leaves behind a great photographic work. Creates four films in-house. 1. "Ronald Kocher and his work" 2. "Isolamento" a film about the environment 3. "On chance in art" 4. "The sketchbook" Designs new models for wind turbines for areas that have already been developed, houses and settlements with geothermal energy and solar power . Models for building railways and highways. In 1968 he founded the Swiss cooperative "Artists and Friends of Art" with his wife Ruth Kocher, which existed for 45 years. In 2004 he and his wife Ruth Kocher founded the "Ronald and Ruth Kocher Foundation" with their own works and their collection of 200 artists, mainly from Switzerland. Has been running his own painting school at Postgasse 6 in Bern since 1961 . He lives in the Spiegel in Köniz .

Publications (selection)

• Seeing, drawing, painting , Hallwag, Ostfildern 1995, ISBN 3-4441-0283-6
• Draw and paint animals . Augustus Verlag 1997, ISBN 3-8043-0533-4
• Intensive course in watercolor painting . Augustus Verlag 1995, ISBN 3-8043-0334-X
• Draw and paint zoo animals. The most common animals in the zoo: their profile and practical instructions on how to use pencil and paint . Werd Verlag 1995, ISBN 3-8593-2168-4
• I want to be a painter , review of the Parisian time self-published, ISBN 3-9520839-5-X
• Building history in pictures , Zentrum Paul Klee self-published
• Sketching , Enke Verlag, ISBN 3-432-99721-3
• The variety of techniques and their practical application

literature

• Lexicon of Contemporary Swiss Artists , Ed .: Hans-Jörg Heusser, Swiss Institute for Art Research , Zurich and Lausanne, Huber Verlag, 1981
• Eduard Plüss, Hans Christoph von Tavel: Artist Lexicon of Switzerland. XX. Century , Huber Verlag

Web links

• Literature by and about Ronald Kocher in the catalog of the German National Library
• Kocher, Wolfgang in Sikart
• Website Ronald Kocher
• Marc Lettau: A painter competes against “dulling”. The painter Ronald Kocher from the mirror fights with a brush and a pointed pen against the alienation of humans from nature. In: derbund.ch . Tamedia AG , March 10, 2014, accessed on February 26, 2018 . 
• Marc Lettau: The persistent fan with the lid for the Autobahn. Covering highways is good, believes the painter and lateral thinker Ronald Kocher. But it is even better to capture all the CO2 from the covered motorway at the same time. In: derbund.ch. Tamedia AG, September 18, 2014, accessed on February 26, 2018 . 
• Stephan Künzi: Artist wants to build over the Autobahn. It is not the warning finger that should fix it, but his exhibition: The painter Ronald Kocher fights with his pictures for the idea of ​​building over the autobahn instead of cultivated land. In: bernerzeitung.ch . Tamedia AG, November 3, 2016, accessed on February 26, 2018 .