Ruedi Bechtler

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Ruedi Bechtler (actually Rudolf Carl Bechtler , pseudonym ARBI , born December 15, 1942 in St. Gallen ) is a Swiss artist , art collector and entrepreneur . As an artist he works in the fields of drawing , concept , photo and object art as well as installation . As a collector, he is primarily interested in contemporary art .

life and work

Ruedi Bechtler grew up with his siblings Katrin and Thomas in Zollikon near Zurich . In 1968 he completed his training as a mechanical engineer at the ETH Zurich , followed by an MBA at Insead in Fontainebleau (F) in 1969 . From 1969 to 1972 Bechtler lived in the USA and worked as a marketing and product planner at Allis-Chalmers . He then returned to Switzerland and joined his parents' company, Luwa AG .

Both Bechtler's father Walter Bechtler and his uncle Hans Bechtler were international entrepreneurs and enthusiastic art collectors. Artists frequented his parents' house and so the whole family took part in the art events of that time. Ruedi Bechtler, for his part, has been creative since childhood.

During his stay in the USA, Bechtler's interest in art intensified and he decided to pursue a career as an artist. 1973–1974 he attended courses at the Zurich School of Applied Arts (today ZHdK) and evening courses at the independent F + F School for Experimental Design (today F + F School for Art and Design).

In 1974 he and a group of like-minded people initiated a studio and action center in the former Wettingen spinning mill and set up a studio there himself. As a result, the interdisciplinary group was very active and addressed a large audience. In 1975, at the invitation of Bechtler , the artist Roman Signer carried out an artistic blast in the Limmat in front of the spinning mill. In the spinning mill, Bechtler presented - like Liliane Csuka and Beat Zoderer later - his first solo exhibition (1975).

Bechtler took part in exhibitions at the Kunsthaus Zürich (1975, 1976, 1979), the Kunstgewerbemuseum (now the Museum für Gestaltung) Zürich (1978) and the Künstlerhaus on Karlsplatz in Vienna (1978). In 1976, Bechtler received the Swiss Federal Art Prize for his artistic work . From 1978 to 1980 Bechtler taught at the F + F school and was active on its board from 1981 to 1997.

Bechtler's artistic works from 1974 onwards were designed to be interactive, as tasks or installations with audience participation, such as the neon object (1976) with a neon tube that was to be shattered or looking each other in the eye (1978) as a photo action. Sensitizer II (1977) as a questionnaire with over 300 questions was discussed at a party in the Wettingen spinning mill in 1979. From 1980 onwards, Bechtler worked more materially, for example with ink drawings, some of which were reproduced in large format with plywood ( Holzzeichen , 1985–1992), or published as blindfold drawings together with jokes ( Jokes , 2017). He cut three-dimensional paper cut-outs from paper (also: paper objects , 1983–1985). He added perforated foils and photographs to image overlays and installations (from 1990) and light objects (from 2000). He also used glass tables or houseplants for installations or designed them as fountains. The installations are made of simple, partly found materials, the origin of which is often still recognizable. Photography remains central in his work, while he draws on his thematic archive of his own photographs and collected postcards . In the series of images Spiegelungen (also reflections , since 1987) these are juxtaposed, one of them standing upside down. He shows photographs of decay (“entropy”) in photo light boxes ( Can , since 2005).

In 1979 he met Regula Kunz, with whom he has been married since 1984. They have three children: Tim (* 1984), Noa (* 1986) and Salome (* 1992).

Bechtler has been a member of the Foundation Council of the Alberto Giacometti Foundation, which was established in 1965 and is located at the Kunsthaus Zürich, since 1980 . In 1984 Bechtler joined the board of the Walter A. Bechtler Foundation, founded in 1955, and has been its president since 1995. The foundation creates works of art in public spaces. From 1988 to 1997 he was President of the “Young Art” group of the “Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde am Kunsthaus Zürich”. He also took part in building up the collection for conceptual photography at the Zellweger Luwa in Uster . In 1999 he founded the “ Rätische Akademie” in Zuoz , of which he was president until 2001, and initiated Art Public Plaiv , with works of art in public space in the Upper Engadine .

Bechtler has shown numerous solo exhibitions in galleries in Zurich, Bern and New York since 1983 and participated in exhibitions in London (1983), Munich (1992, 2010), Lugano (1995), Berlin (2003) and Seoul (2003). A retrospective view of his work can be found in the monograph Flip Flop ( JRP Ringier , 2010). A larger overview of his works was shown in 2015 in the exhibition Silber in Kunst (Zeug) Haus Rapperswil .

Bechtler has been the owner of the "Castell" hotel in Zuoz since 1996, where he realizes events on contemporary art and architecture. He also commissions works: Tadashi Kawamata rebuilt the old rock pool (1997), Pipilotti Rist and Gabrielle Hächler realized the Rote Bar (1998), James Turrell realized the Skyspace Piz Uter (2005). Further works from the Bechtler collection in the hotel are by Martin Kippenberger , Mickry Drei, Mai-Thu Perret, Roman Signer, Fischli / Weiss , Lawrence Weiner , Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger , Simon Starling , Carsten Höller and Andrea Büttner .

Collections with works by Ruedi Bechtler

Monographs

  • Ruedi Bechtler: Reflections 1987–1991 . [Ed. Ruedi Bechtler and Fritz Franz Vogel], exhibition catalog. Room F, Zurich 1991.
  • Ruedi Bechtler: Flip Flop. (Contributions by Daniel Baumann, Lionel Bovier , Das Institut: Kerstin Brätsch and Adele Röder, Philipp Kaiser , Tadashi Kawamata, Tobias Madison, Heike Munder , Pipilotti Rist, Steiner-Lietha). JRP Ringier, Zurich 2010, ISBN 978-3-03764-179-8 .
  • Ruedi Bechtler: Jokes & more. Edizioni Periferia, Luzern / Poschiavo 2017, ISBN 978-3-906016-82-5 .

Editions

  • Ruedi Carl Bechtler (ARBI): USA. Sketches book. Created in 1969, 1970, 1971 and 1972. Zurich 1972. (ring binder)
  • ARBI [Ruedi Bechtler]: Pocket Sensitizer, 1975/1978. (Postcard edition)
  • ARBI [Ruedi Bechtler]: Look each other in the eye. [Documentation on the mirror images campaign , Kunsthaus Zürich], 1979. (ring binder)
  • Ruedi Bechtler: Characters [1986–1988]. (With contribution from Claudia Jolles). E 'Galerie, Zurich 1990. (paperback series of postcards)
  • Ruedi Bechtler: On a knife edge. 1975-1998. Photographs. Serge Ziegler Gallery, Zurich 1998.
  • Ruedi Bechtler: Play Box, regulations. Edition (with hammer, cord, glue stick, pencils, photocopies and photos in cardboard box). Serge Ziegler Gallery, Zurich 1998.
  • Ruedi Bechtler: BRAIN. [blue box], 22 photographs (c-prints, hand prints) in a linen-bound case. Serge Ziegler Gallery, Zurich 1998.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions (selection)

  • Wettingen spinning mill, 1975 (as ARBI)
  • Ruedi Bechtler, Sections - from the surface into the room , Gimpel-Hanover + André Emmerich Galleries, Zurich 1983
  • Ruedi Bechtler, paper objects , Galerie Michèle Zeller, Bern 1984
  • E 'Gallery, Zurich 1989
  • Imaging Photography , room f, Forum for Photography, Zurich 1991/1992, on the occasion of the art scene 1991 (with catalog)
  • Ruedi Bechtler, Laboratory for Regulations , Serge Ziegler Gallery, 1998
  • Ruedi Bechtler, Larry Deyab , Serge Ziegler Galerie at Brooke Alexander, New York, 2006
  • Ruedi Bechtler, Balance , Galerie Ziegler, Zurich, 2015

Group exhibitions (selection)

  • Galerie Amstutz, Zurich 1975 (as ARBI)
  • Kunstszene Zürich 1975 , Kunsthaus Zürich 1975/1976 (as ARBI)
  • Art School F + F , Kunsthaus Zürich, 1976 (as ARBI)
  • Künstlerhaus am Karlsplatz, Vienna 1978 (as ARBI)
  • Wettingen spinning mill , Kunsthaus Zürich, 1979 (as ARBI)
  • Art on the water , Kunsthaus Zug , 1979 (as ARBI, with Regula Kunz)
  • 7. Swiss Sculpture Exhibition , Biel 1980 (as ARBI with regulators Kunz)
  • Twelve Swiss Artists , Galerie Gimpel & Hanover / Gimpel Fils, London 1983 (with catalog)
  • Ruedi Bechtler, Ellen Classen, Geneviève Duley-Wohnlich, Marc Egger , Kunsthaus Oerlikon , Tiefenbrunnen tram depot , Zurich 1989
  • Helvetia (condensed) , photo art from Switzerland, artist workshop Lothringerstrasse 13, Munich 1992 (with catalog)
  • la collezione di fotografia svizzera della Banca del Gottardo , Galleria Gottardo, Lugano, 1995 (with catalog)
  • 3rd Photo Festival , Seoul 2003 (with catalog)
  • Carlos Amorales, Ruedi Bechtler, Larry Deyab u. a., griedervonputtkamer gallery, Berlin, 2003
  • Ruedi Bechtler and friends . Tobias Madison, Martin Senn, Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger. Tuchamid Gallery, Klosters, 2012
  • serge stauffer - art as research , Helmhaus Zurich , 2013 (with catalog)
  • The triangle of love - physicality and abstraction in Zurich art , Helmhaus Zurich, 2015 (with catalog)
  • Silver. Teres Wydler. Ruedi Bechtler. Alex Sadkowsky , Art (stuff) Haus Rapperswil-Jona, 2015–2016

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ On Katrin Bechtler cf. her Chemical Moon Baby project
  2. ↑ See Ruedi Bechtler at Fotostiftung Schweiz
  3. ↑ On Luwa AG cf. also Luwa Air Engineering AG and on the history of Luwa AG cf. Luwa at the Historical Lexicon of Switzerland
  4. ↑ See Bice Curiger (ed.): Before the Sun Rises. Walter A. Bechtler Foundation. JRP Ringier, Zurich 2005.
  5. ↑ See Silvia Dörnenburg u. a. (Ed.): Currently. 15 years atelier community spinning mill Wettingen. Self-published, Wettingen 1989.
  6. ↑ See Hansjörg Mattmüller , Gerhard J. Lischka (ed.): Genius exists. The seventies at the F&F School for Experimental Design. Betzel, Frankfurt am Main 1981, pp. 97-99.
  7. ↑ See Michael Hiltbrunner: Questions, Methods, Processes, Archives. Researching art with Serge Stauffer and at the early F + F school. In: Ute Holfelder u. a. (Ed.): Art and ethnography - between cooperation and co-production? (Cultural science technology research; 7). Chronos, Zurich 2018, pp. 113–126.
  8. ↑ See Ruedi Bechtler: Jokes & more. Edizioni Periferia, Luzern / Poschiavo 2017.
  9. ↑ Cf. Hilar Stadler: And always putting order in disorder. Eight experiments on the work of Ruedi Bechtler. In: Kunstbulletin , No. 5, May 1998, pp. 26–31.
  10. ↑ See Ruedi Bechtler: Reflexionen 1987–1991. [Ed. Ruedi Bechtler and Fritz Franz Vogel]. Exhibition catalog. Room F, Zurich 1991.
  11. ↑ See Heidi Schlumpf Steiner: Decay and Beauty. In: artensuite . Swiss Art Magazine, February 2011, pp. 16–17.
  12. ↑ Cf. Ruedi Bechtler: Speech on the occasion of the commemoration, 50 years of the Giacometti Foundation, 2016
  13. ↑ See Bice Curiger (ed.): Before the Sun Rises. Walter A. Bechtler Foundation. JRP Ringier, Zurich 2005; see. also the website of the Walter A. Bechtler Foundation
  14. ^ Friends of Art Zurich
  15. ↑ See Kunstmuseum Bonn and Kunstmuseum St. Gallen (eds.): Through the Looking Brain. A Swiss collection of conceptual photography. Exhibition catalog. Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2011.
  16. ↑ See Art Public Plaiv
  17. ↑ See Christoph Schenker (ed.): Public Plaiv, art contemporauna illa Plaiv. Contemporary art in the La Plaiv landscape and settlement area, Upper Engadin. HGKZ University of Design and Art, Zurich 2002.
  18. ↑ See Ruedi Bechtler: Flip Flop. JRP Ringier, Zurich 2010.
  19. ↑ See exhibition Silber, Kunst (Zeug) Haus Rapperswil, 2015
  20. ↑ See Hotel Castell, Kunst im Castell
  21. ↑ Cf. Ewa Hess: A total work of art gives off sparks. Ruedi Bechtler tells. In: You. Die Zeitschrift der Kultur , No. 846, May 2014, pp. 36–43.
personal data
SURNAME Bechtler, Ruedi
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bechtler, Rudolf Carl; Bechtler Rudolf Karl
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss artist
DATE OF BIRTH December 15, 1942
PLACE OF BIRTH St. Gallen