Valery Heussler

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Valery Heussler (born February 2, 1920 in Basel ; † January 29, 2007 in Elfingen ) was a Swiss painter and sculptor .

Life

Sculpture Group, Normalized Society Machines by Valery Heussler
Sculpture normalized society machines in Rheinfelden

Valery Heussler was born on February 2, 1920 in Basel. Her father was a blacksmith and ran a car repair shop. The fulfillment of her childhood wish to learn an artistic profession was not allowed by her father and she did a commercial apprenticeship. Initially working as an office worker, at the age of 19 she set up the advertising center for the Maus Frères department store group (now Manor) in Basel together with the copywriter Fritz Friedmann . In 1941 she quit the job and attended the painting and graphics class at what was then Basel's industrial school all day. In her spare time she worked as a graphic artist to earn a living as an artist. In 1946 she married the painter Alex Maier (1917–2005). She later joined the artists' association Kreis 48 , which she left before 1968.

In the 1960s she turned away from painting and turned to plastic design. From 1986 to 1987 at the trade school she learned the art of forging , locksmithing and welding as the technical basis for her later iron sculptures . The purchase of a farmhouse in Elfingen enabled her to set up her own workshop with a forge in 1969 .

From 1975–1978 she was president of the Basel section of the GSMBK ( Swiss Society of Female Artists ). Until the end of her life on January 29, 2007, Valery Heussler lived and worked in Elfingen.

plant

Eyes and ears people , Theodorsgraben facility, Basel

Valery Heussler's life's work can, very simply, be divided into three periods: the early period of fantastic painting until the end of the 1950s, the 1960s with an emphasis on drawing and etching and the beginning of smaller, sculptural works, and beginning the late period from around 1970 with small ironwork and figurative bronze sculptures. From 1980, these were followed by life-size iron sculptures, wrapped with fabric ribbons or made of bright chrome steel. The figures were often arranged in series next to or behind one another and reveal a socially critical artist.

Works (selection)

in public space
  • Metal sculpture by Valery Heussler-Maler (1920–2007). Share bread. Theodorsgraben facility, Basel
    Metal plastic. Share bread. Theodorsgraben facility, Basel.
    Share bread. Metal plastic. Theodorsgrabenanlage, Basel.
  • Normalized society machines in Rheinfelden

Publications

  • Louis Wiesmann (Ed.): Seventeen Basler Authors: Conversations - Samples from their works. With portrait drawings by Alex Maier and Valéry Heussler. Schwabe, Basel 1963.
  • Alfred Bühler, Terry Barrow, Charles P. Mountford: Oceania and Australia. The art of the South Seas. With 73 drawn illustrations by Valery Heussler. Holle, Baden-Baden 1965.

literature

  • General Artist Lexicon, Volume 73.De Gruyter, Berlin 2011, ISBN 978-3-11-023178-6 .
  • Biographical lexicon of Swiss art. Verlag NZZ, Zurich 1998 ISBN 3-85823-673-X .
  • Andrea S. Végh: Valery Heussler - “Shared responsibility is the engine of my work”. In: M. Gass, M. Glatt, A. Jetzer (eds.): Die Basler Künstlergruppe Kreis 48. Christoph Merian Verlag, Basel 2016, ISBN 978-3-85616-810-0 , pp. 76–83.

Web links

Commons : Valery Heussler  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ [1] Image and multimedia database of the Canton of Basel-Stadt, accessed on March 24, 2014.
personal data
SURNAME Heussler, Valery
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Maier, Valery
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH February 2, 1920
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH January 29, 2007
Place of death Elfingen