Walter Gürtler

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Walter Gürtler , also Walthari Gürtler , (born July 25, 1931 in Allschwil ; † August 30, 2012 in Mulhouse , France ; legal resident in Allschwil) was a Swiss sculptor .

Life

Gothic man , shell limestone, 1958
Gothic woman , shell limestone, 1958

Walter Gürtler was born as the third and youngest child of the community forester Josef Gürtler and Marie Gürtler-Valentin in Allschwil, where he attended primary and secondary school. After completing his apprenticeship as a stonemason with Alvin Seifried in Basel, training as a stone sculptor with Jakob Weder in Riehen and taking courses at the Basel School of Applied Arts (now the Hochschule für Gestaltung und Kunst ) with a focus on writing, design , figure drawing and nude modeling, he obtained this on April 30, 1952 Certificate of proficiency as a stone sculptor. After the recruitment school as a grenadier and a year traveling through Italy , France, Greece , Spain , Holland and Germany , he worked from 1954 to 1955 as a trade fair boy on the ocean-going ships Basilea and Carona in shuttle traffic between Europe and South , Central and North America as well as Haiti .

From 1955 to 1960 Walter Gürtler lived and worked as a freelance artist in his parents' house in Allschwil. In 1958 he presented his oak sculpture Die Ackerdistel / Grosse Sonne as part of the “Plastic outdoors” exhibition in Biel . In 1960 Walter Gürtler moved to Hammerstrasse 168 in Basel and set up his studio on Mühlheimerstrasse. In 1961 he acquired the secular synagogue in Hégenheim / France, which has since served him as an apartment and studio. From 1963 to 1968 he was a member of the group 33 artists in Basel and took part in the Christmas exhibitions in the Kunsthalle Basel . In 1964 he made the brick reliefs of the cross chalice and the ear of corn as well as the baptismal font for the Tituskirche in Basel as " art in architecture " .

With his second wife, Julie Margrit Gürtler-Hunziker (married in 1963), he traveled around the world through Greece, Romania, Turkey, India, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Burma, Thailand and Cambodia. In 1965 he received an art scholarship from the city of Basel and in 1966 a prize from the Lions Club Basel. With the prize money, he installed the large studio window on the east facade of the synagogue in 1967. In 1970 he took part in the International Sculpture Symposium in Mauthausen, Austria, where he hand-sculpted the monumental sculpture Paramahansa Yogananda from Perger granite .

Gürtler, who from 1971 lived more and more close to nature and more spiritually, was a vegetarian, from 1975 a vegan, an active opponent of nuclear power and capitalism and consequently a practicing barter and self-sufficiency based on bio-dynamic cultivation methods. From 1970 to 2007 he was a follower of Paramahansa Yogananda and Sathya Sai Baba . In February 1975 he became a member of the SRF meditation group in Basel and until his death invited meditations in the former synagogue in Hégenheim himself. Through contact with Rabbi Marc Meyer and Lea Rogg (who made an inventory of the Jewish cemetery in Hégenheim), he began in 1997 to repair over 200 old tombstones on a voluntary basis.

After initially using cubist-influenced, static-looking figures, Gürtler developed a vertically oriented abstract method of representation based on Constantin Brâncuși by the end of the 1960s and created over 1,000 wood, stone, clay and bronze sculptures, many for public spaces and Institutions such as schools, kindergartens and old people's homes, plus more than 500 drawings and sketches. Until 2011 he took part in a total of 34 exhibitions in Switzerland and France. Sculptures of his can be found in Europe, the United States and India . He also acted as a mediator of stone and wood sculpture for interested students and sculptors. Gürtler died after a short illness in Moenchsberg Hospital in Mulhouse / France.

plant

Works in public space

Kreuzkelch Tituskirche Basel, brick relief, 1964
  • 1954: Adam (granite), Stockholm University
  • 1956: Eckstein Füchsin (granite), at the Letten schoolhouse in Allschwil
  • 1958: Grosse Sonne / Menora (oak), Bachgraben Allschwil retirement center
  • 1960: The fighter (granite), former Allschwil municipal administration
  • 1961: Forest relief (Collombey Kalk), Adullam Foundation Basel
  • 1962: Kleine Sonne (oak), Art Commission Kt. BL
  • 1964: Cross chalice (plaster relief), Titus Church, Basel
  • 1964: Kreuzkelch (brick relief ), Titus Church, Basel
  • 1964: Ear of corn (brick relief), Tituskirche Basel
  • 1964: Baptismal font (Collombey-Kalk), Titus Kirche Basel
  • 1966: Compensation (marble), Art Credit Commission Kt. BL
  • 1969: Bee (shell limestone), Kindergarten Feldstrasse Allschwil
  • 1969: Kosmos (limestone), Schönenbuchstrasse school building, Allschwil
  • 1972 Paramahansa Yogananda (oak), Rectorate Realschule Basel, art credit BS
  • 1973 Yogananda-Stehle (oak), children's playground at Bachgraben, Allschwil and others.
  • 1974 Brunnenstock (red quartz sandstone), Klarastrasse / Hegenheimermattweg, Allschwil

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

  • 1972: "Walter Gürtler: Sculture", at Dimitri, in the teatro Dimitri, 6653 Verscio
  • 1991: "Walter Gürtler: for his 60th birthday", from Jeanne Schneeberger, Bahnhofstrasse 10, Lützelflüh-Goldbach
  • 2003: "Walter Gürtler: Works from Private Ownership", at Armin Vogt, Galerie, Münsterplatz 8, Basel
  • 2011: "Walter Gürtler: for his 80th birthday", at Werner Röthlisberger, Galerie am Spalenberg, Basel
  • 2013: "Walter Gürtler: 50 years of life and work in the former synagogue in Hegenheim", Maison du Rabbin, Hégenheim, by Jeanne Schneeberger
  • 2014: "Walter Gürtler: three to the power four ", Heimatmuseum Allschwil, Baslerstrasse 122, 4123 Allschwil, by Jeanne Schneeberger
  • 2015: "Walter Gürtler: Cross Chalice in the Titus Church Basel ", Titus Church, Basel by Jeanne Schneeberger
  • 2016: "Walter Gürtler: for two ", Titus Church, 4059 Basel by Jeanne Schneeberger

Group exhibitions

  • 1958: 1961, "Plastic outdoors", Rittermattenschulhaus and Park am See, Biel
  • 1958: Villa Olmo, Como, Italy
  • 1961, 1963, 1966, 1967, 1968, 1972, 1973, 1974: Christmas exhibitions, Kunsthalle, Basel
  • 1971: 1974, 1979, 1998, 2011: in the local history museum, shopping paradise, in the Mühlestall, Allschwil
  • 1972: "Sculptures in the open", Binningen
  • 1972: Galerie au Souffle de Paris , F-Saint-Louis
  • 1972: Ars Mittenza Muttenz, woodcut and small sculpture
  • 1976: Sissach
  • 1980: Basel University Library
  • 1983: Gallery «zem Specht», January and July exhibitions, Gemsberg 8, Basel
  • 1987: Exhibition space Klingental / Kaserne 4058 Basel, 1989 Ebenrain, Sissach
  • 1998, 1999, 2000, 2002: Complexe Culturel, F-Hégenheim and others
  • 2011: Exhibition in the Allschwil Mühlestall

literature

  • Léa Rogg: La Synagogue or the School de Hégenheim. Le judaïsme d'Alsace et de Lorraine website (ASIJA); accessed on November 29, 2016.
  • Titus Church. In: Building and Transport Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt (Ed.): Baukultur im Bauboom, Basler Bauten 1960–1970. Urban Development & Architecture, 2017, DNB 1141935732 .
  • Group 33. Volume 6 of the Editions Galerie “Zem Specht”, Basel 1983, ISBN 3-85696-006-6 , p. 274 f.
  • Local history Allschwil. Leo Zehnder and employees. Publisher of the cantonal school and office supplies administration. Liestal 1981, ISBN 3-85673-501 , pp. 382 and 383.

Lexicons

  • Renate Treydel: Gürtler, Walter . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 65, Saur, Munich a. a. 2009, ISBN 978-3-598-23032-5 , p. 18.
  • Swiss Institute for Art Research (Ed.): Artist directory of Switzerland 1980–1990. Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld 1991, ISBN 3-7193-1045-0 , p. 191 f.
  • Swiss Institute for Art Research (Ed.): Biographical Lexicon of Swiss Art. Volume A-K. Verlag Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-85823-673-X , p. 443.
  • Eduard Plüss, Hans Christoph von Tavel (Ed.): Artist Lexicon of Switzerland XX. Century. Volume 1. Verlag Huber, Frauenfeld 1958-1967, DNB 457313900 , p. 392 f.
  • Marcel Joray: Swiss sculpture of the present. Volume II: 1954 to 1959. Editions du Griffon, Neuchâtel 1959, DNB 821261568 , p. 80 f.

Catalogs

  • September 2 to 24, 1961, buri gürtler iseli luginbühl master spescha schaffner, Städtische Galerie Biel, Walter Gürtler, Basel, Hammerstrasse 168, p. 7, Städtische Galerie Biel, printed by Hertig, Biel.
  • January 1962, werk / Swiss monthly for architecture, art, artistic trade, publisher WERK, Winterthur. Three young sculptors from Basel. Pp. 37-40.
  • November 29, 1964, commemorative publication for the inauguration of the Tituskirche in Basel, on the 1st of Advent, published by the Church Council St. Elisabethen, Basel, p. 12, photos 3 and 4.
  • 1970, international sculptor symposia linz-mauthausen 1970, 1971, 1973. Editor of the Association of International Sculptor Symposium, Linz-Mauthausen Upper Austria, Hannes Haslecker. Walter Gürtler, Paramahansa Yogananda, Perger-Granit, 1970, H 3.36m, W 1.30m, D 1.11m.
  • September 18, 1970, Upper Austrian culture report, XXIV. Volume, episode 27/28, editor of the cultural department of the Upper Austrian regional government, publisher official Linzer Zeitung.
  • October 1971, Art and Stone, No. 5, 16th year, publisher of the Association of Swiss Sculptors and Stonemasons (VSBS), editor Fritz Hauswirth / Grait-Sculptor Center in Mauthausen. Walter Gürtler, p. 5.
  • September 30 to October 22, 1972, sculpture outdoors, on the terraces and inside the Spiegelfeld Binningen school buildings. Publisher Kunstverein Binningen. Walter Gürtler, p. 20.
  • November 9 to December 1, 1974, Art in Allschwil - Allschwil artists, in the local history museum in Allschwil, Walter Gürtler, objects 114–118, publisher of the Allschwil Transport and Culture Association
  • November 28, 1976 to January 2, 1977, small sculptures and sculptural drawings, Walter Gürtler, Hégenheim Alsace. Publisher: Basel Landschaftliche Kunstvereinigung.
  • May 31 to June 28, 1987, sculptors, artist information, barracks exhibition room, Gürtler Walthari, Hegenheim. Publisher: Atelierhaus Klingental, Basel.
  • September 3 to 30, 1989, 4 decades of ART in Baselland 1945–1989, In ​​Ebenrain Castle and Park in Sissach, Walthari Gürtler, “The Holy One” . Ed .: Basel Landschaftliche Kunstvereinigung, p. 33.
  • 1998, HEGENHEIM - BUSCHWEILLER, by Christophe Sanchez, BULLETIN NO.2 DU CERCLE D'HISTOIRE DE HEGENHEIM - BUSCHWILLER, Walter Gürtler, Sculpteur. Imprimerie P. Bieler, Huningue. Pp. 27–29,
  • September 9 to 17, 2011, Walter Gürtler, for his 80th birthday, catalog. Ed .: Jeanne Schneeberger. Printing: Jordi, Belp.
  • 7th to 14th September 2014, Titus Church Basel, reliefs on the New Testament, Peter Moilliet, exterior reliefs and Walter Gürtler interior reliefs and baptismal font. Brochure from Titus Kirche Basel. Text: Pastor Monika Widmer, photos and layout: Jeanne Schneeberger, printing: Haller and Jenzer Burgdorf
  • August 30, 2015, Walter Gürtler, “Kreuzkelch in der Tituskirche Basel”, exhibition catalog by Jeanne Schneeberger. Printing: Haller and Jenzer, Burgdorf.
  • September 2 to 9, 2016, Walter Gürtler, “for two”, exhibition Titus Kirche Basel, by Jeanne Schneeberger, catalog 2016. Printed by: Haller and Jenzer Burgdorf.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Léa Rogg: La Synagogue ou la Schule de Hégenheim. Le judaïsme d'Alsace et de Lorraine (ASIJA); accessed on November 29, 2016.
  2. ↑ Group 33. Volume 6 of the Editions Galerie “Zem Specht”, Basel 1983, ISBN 3-85696-006-6 , p. 274 f.
personal data
SURNAME Gürtler, Walter
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Gürtler, Walthari
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH July 25, 1931
PLACE OF BIRTH Allschwil
DATE OF DEATH August 30, 2012
Place of death Mulhouse , France