Willy Hege

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Willy Heges Gelpke fountain
in Basel-Kleinhüningen

Willy Hege (born January 24, 1907 in Basel ; † August 10, 1976 there ) was a Swiss sculptor and goldsmith .

life and work

Willy Hege's father was a flat painter , his mother sewed military coats. In addition to his mother, Hege found support for his creativity in his primary school teacher August Brotbeck. After finishing secondary school, Hege began an apprenticeship as a goldsmith in Basel. At the same time he learned the craft of silversmithing. After completing his apprenticeship, he worked as a goldsmith for three years and took drawing courses at the Basel School of Applied Arts. In the meantime, Hege opened his own business, which he gave up again after a short time. For a while he worked as a bricklayer , locksmith , painter, decorator and as a sidekick in a stone carving workshop . During the renovation of the Basel Dance of Death at the Predigerkirche , he made large parts of the copies of the gargoyles , finials and other shapes.

Hege's artist friend Ernst Georg Heussler (1903–1982), with whom he shared a studio, encouraged him to go his own way as an independent artist. Together they exhibited their works and Hege decided to devote himself entirely to sculpture. He traveled to the marble quarries of Carrara and the quarries of Switzerland to find the stones that met his quality standards. In addition to marble , Hege worked with limestone and sandstone , and for large areas he used granite . At the beginning of his sculpting career, Hege mainly created works with abstract forms, which in the course of time changed into a figurative- naturalistic formal language. According to Hege's motto: "The artist has to adjust to the external conditions", he only designed his works after examining the intended environment, and the stone to be worked on indicated the direction of the forms.

Hege engaged in nude and head studies and participated in competitions. In 1939 he also received his first commission for the Jumping Salm or Jumping Fish , which was the first prize from the Basel-Stadt art credit and can be seen on the Solitude Promenade in Basel. In the same year he married Ruth Erikson, with whom he had three daughters.

From 1943 to 1946 he created his monumental work for Rudolf Gelpke , '' Gelpke-Brunnen '"with the limestone figurehead in front of Rheinhafenbecken 1 in Basel-Kleinhüningen . At the same time he made coins and medals in goldsmithing. He repeatedly took part in competitions, which he often won .

Hege worked for Adolf Tschudin's larvae studio for 35 years. He had the idea to recruit well-known Basel artists for the designs of his larvae , including Hege, Irène Zurkinden , Otto Abt and Max Wilke. During this time he created 1,500 Basel artist larvae . The legendary group 33 artists' ball took place in the Kunsthalle Basel on Shrove Tuesday. In 1941 Hege was accepted into the artist group, which he left again in 1957 and joined the GSMBA .

Around 1946 he learned by Roman Boos the anthroposophy of Rudolf Steiner know and appreciate. It influenced his further life more and more and became the guide of his artistic activity. Commissioned by Ilja Duwan, who was an anthroposophical actor, Hege, together with Alfred Bieri and the architect and artist Albert von Baravalla (1902–1983), was able to design the “Marianus Room” in Bern in 1967 based on the model of the large dome of the first Goetheanum .

In the last years of his life, Hege dealt intensively with the beings and forces of the planets and the signs of the zodiac and let his insights flow into twelve stone sculptures based on the constellations of the zodiac sign and seven metal sculptures. These are now on loan from the Lukas Clinic in Arlesheim . His artistic life's work was thus divided into three stages, the transitions of which were fluid.

Works (selection)

  • 1940: Jumping Salm , bronze. Solitude-Promenade, Basel
  • 1940: Nymph , shell limestone, private property, Oberhofen am Thunersee
  • 1941: Dragon , bronze, Spiegelhof Basel
  • 1946: Gelpke fountain, limestone, Kleinhüningen
  • 1951: Icarus and Daedalus , relief, shell limestone, corner of Gartenstrasse / St. Jakobsstrasse, Basel
  • 1952: Bremen Town Musicians , bronze, sand pit school house, Basel
  • 1952: basilisk , fountain, bronze a. Kalkstein, Institute for Inorganic Chemistry at the University of Basel
  • 1953: Man-woman , mermaids , relief, sandstone, Bruderholz reservoir , Basel
  • 1953: Man-woman with trombones, fountain, Hörnli cemetery , Basel
  • 1954: Mythical animal , fountain, bronze, sandstone, Jakobsberg, Basel
  • 1956 : Angel blowing the trumpet , bronze, Basel Conservatory
  • 1956: Snake , bronze, Wettsteinbrücke , Basel
  • 1956: Mother Earth, sandstone, Dorfstrasse, Muttenz
  • 1957: Seal , fountain, bronze, Wasgenring, Basel
  • 1957: Vogel , Carrara marble, Riburgstrasse, Basel
  • 1958: Susanna in the bath and Fortuna, Spuma die Mare , pharmacy, St. Johann Vorstadt 58, Basel
  • 1959: Rosso Amaranto , Brunnen, Hirzbrunnen Schoolhouse, Basel
  • 1959: Four bird animals , bronze, Leonhard grammar school , Basel
  • 1961: Möven , facade relief , Hochbergstrasse, Kleinhüningen
  • 1961: Abstract bird , bronze, vocational school, Basel
  • 1962: Facade relief, «Rose» retirement home, Muttenz
  • 1963: Aspiring young woman , marble, Kellergässlein, Basel
  • 1963: Breitebrunnen , Bavenogranit, Breite, Basel
  • 1967: Orpheus Brunnen, Oeschenbach schoolhouse
  • 1969: Planets , different metals, Lukasklinik, Arlesheim
  • 1970: Dancing couple, bronze, Rudolf Steiner School, Bern
  • 1972: Two wooden pillars for the abdication hall in Huttwil
  • 1972–1975: 12 signs of the zodiac , different types of marble, Lukasklinik, Arlesheim
  • 1974: Johannes , Marmor, Lukasklinik, Arlesheim
  • 1976: The Viergetier , marble, grave in the Hörnli cemetery, Basel

Coins and medals

Exhibitions (selection)

literature

  • Georg Schmidt: My dear 33 friends. In: Künstlervereinigung Gruppe 1933 Basel. Basel 1939.
  • Dorothea Christ : The meaning of group 33. In: Basler Stadtbuch 1983, pp. 31–41.
  • Yvonne Höfliger-Griesser, Jacqueline Portmann: The history of Group 33 on the 50th anniversary. Editions Galerie «Zem Specht», Basel 1983, ISBN 3-85696-006-6 .
  • Education Department Basel-Stadt (Ed.): Willy Hege. In: Art for Basel: 75 years of art credit Basel-Stadt. Art in public space. Schwabe Verlag, Basel 1974, ISBN 3-7965-0968-1 .


  • Springender Salm, bronze, 1940, Solitude Promenade Basel.

    1940, Springender Salm, Solitude-Promenade, Basel

  • Sundial, 1946, Leonhardskirchplatz 1, Basel.

    1946, sundial, Leonhardskirchplatz, Basel

  • Man and woman with trumpets, fountain, 1953, Friedhof am Hörnli, Basel

    1953, man and woman with trumpets, fountain in the Hörnli cemetery

  • Angel blowing the trumpet, bronze, 1956, University of Music FHNW, Music Academy Basel

    1956, Angel blowing the trumpet, Music Academy of the City of Basel

  • Sculpture, Susanna in the bath and Fortuna, Spuma die Mare, (sea foam) 1958, pharmacy, St. Johann Vorstadt 58, Basel, inscription Fortuna 1464 - 1958 Susanna

    1958, Susanna in the bath and Fortuna,

  • Aspiring youth, marble, 1963, Kellergässlein 7, Basel

    1963, aspiring youth, Kellergässlein, Basel

  • Dragon, 1941, Spiegelhof, Basel. Sculptor by Willy Hege (1907–1976)

    1941, Drache , Spiegelhof, Basel

Web links

Commons : Willy Hege  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Christian Platz: The Basel artist larva. Fasnachtsgesellschaft Basel, accessed on June 24, 2019 .
  2. ^ Yvonne Höfliger-Griesser, Jacqueline Portmann: Willy Hege, The history of the group 33 . Ed .: Edition Galerie zem Specht. Basel, S. 291-296 .
  3. ^ Mario Zadow: Marianus room, Ilja Duvan. Retrieved June 26, 2019 .
  4. ↑ Erika von Baravalla: Marianus room, Albert von Baravalla. Retrieved June 24, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Foster home for musical arts - Theater am Stalden: About us - Marianus room. Retrieved June 24, 2019 .
personal data
SURNAME Hege, Willy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH January 24, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Basel
DATE OF DEATH August 10, 1976
Place of death Basel