Art Encyclopedia:
Walter Bodmer |
(b Basle, 12 Aug 1903; d Basle, 3 June 1973). Swiss painter and sculptor. He studied in the arts and crafts department of the Allgemeinenen Gewerbeschule in Basle from 1919 to 1923 and then went on a series of long study trips to Paris, Collioure in southern France, Spain and Italy. His early paintings, such as Fishing Harbour at Collioure (1931; Basle, Kstmus.), were executed in a Post-Impressionist style. From 1932 his work became increasingly abstract, though initially retaining a figurative base, as in Composition (1934; Basle, Kstmus.); such works are similar in style to synthetic Cubism, although their imagery is even less legible. Bodmer was a founder-member of GRUPPE 33 in 1933 and took part in their first exhibition in the following year. By 1935, under the influence of Constructivism, his work became entirely abstract and was characterized by broadly geometric arrangements of lines and colour planes, as in Construction (1935; Basle, Kstmus.). He quickly extended this style into reliefs and free-standing sculptures made of wire and metal plate, for example Wire Picture (1936; Basle, Kstmus.), a relief mounted on a wooden base in a frame. In 1937 Bodmer helped found another Swiss group, ALLIANZ, participating in their group exhibitions, and from 1939 to 1968 he taught drawing and anatomy at the Allgemeinenen Gewerbeschule in Basle.
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