Walter Bodmer (painter)

Metal relief, 1961–1963, Bruderholz School

Walter Bodmer (born August 12, 1903 in Basel ; † June 3, 1973 there ) was a Swiss painter and sculptor .

Live and act

Walter Bodmer studied from 1919 to 1923 at the general trade school in Basel, the training course painter. From 1927 to 1928 he toured Paris and Collioure with his friends Otto Abt and Walter Kurt Wiemken . In Collioure they met with other artists, such as Serge Brignoni and Jean Matisse .

In 1932 Bodmer received an introduction to the technique of the monotype from Hein Heckroth (1901–1970), a German artist . From then on, his art began to change from impressionism to abstract painting . In February 1932 Walter Bodmer had his first solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel.

In 1933, Bodmer, together with his friends Walter Kurt Wiemken and Otto Abt, co- initiated the anti-fascist group 33, which was founded in protest against the conservative tendencies in the Swiss artist and architect scene, particularly in opposition to the conservative Basel section of the Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors and Architects (GSMBA ) .

During this time, Walter Bodmer began to deal artistically with Cubism . He developed his own visual language, which is expressed in drawings, reliefs , wire pictures and sculptures . From 1936 Bodmer worked intensively with metal wire. He created wire reliefs and wire sculptures that make him a pioneer of abstract art. Also in 1936 he took part in the avant-garde exhibition Time Problems in Swiss Painting and Sculpture at the Kunsthaus Zürich . Some of his works emerged from the competitions of the Kunstkredit Basel-Stadt .

In addition to art, Bodmer was also a musician. He made his living as a saxophonist and drummer for the Fred Manys Band in the 1930s . This was one of the first successful Swiss jazz bands . In 1939 Bodmer became a teacher at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Basel (today: Basel School of Design ) for life drawing , head drawing and anatomical drawing. The death of his friend Walter Kurt Wiemken on December 30, 1940 hit Bodmer very hard.

In 1944 Bodmer took part in the exhibition Concrete Art , which took place in the Kunsthalle Basel. (Walter Bodmer, Hans Arp , Max Bill , Wassily Kandinsky , Paul Klee , Leo Leuppi , Richard Paul Lohse , Piet Mondrian , Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Georges Vantongerloo were shown here.) In 1947 he had an exhibition in the Berner Kunsthalle together with Leo Leuppi, Alexander Calder and Fernand Léger .

In the 1950s, Walter Bodmer's art also received international recognition: in 1956 he took part in the 28th Venice Biennale and in the same year received the national art prize for Switzerland from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation . In 1959 Walter Bodmer took part in documenta II in Kassel . In 1968 Bodmer was awarded the Art Prize of the City of Basel .

Exhibitions

• Big retrospective: 100th birthday of the Basel artist Walter Bodmer - pioneer of Swiss abstracts. Basel 2003

literature

• Maria Netter: Walter Bodmer's pictures and wire sculptures . In: Architektur und Kunst , Vol. 36, Issue 6, 1949, pp. 195–199.
• Dorothea Christ : Walter Bodmer August 14, 1903 to June 3, 1973 . In: Basler Stadtbuch 1973, pp. 209–218.
• Dorothea Christ: The importance of group 33 . In: Basler Stadtbuch 1983, pp. 31–41.
• Agathe Straumann, Basel-Stadt Education Department. Walter Bodmer. In: Art for Basel: 75 years of art credit Basel-Stadt. Art in public space. Schwabe Verlag, Basel 1974, ISBN 3-7965-0968-1 .

Web links

Commons : Walter Bodmer (painter)  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Hans-Peter Fleury: Bodmer, Walter. In: Sikart
• Walter Bodmer In: Art Credit Collection
• Publications by and about Walter Bodmer (1903-1973) in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
• Literature by and about Walter Bodmer in the catalog of the German National Library
• Materials by and about Walter Bodmer in the documenta archive