Hans Josephsohn

For sculptor Hans Josephsohn (1920-2012), who was born in Konigsberg and had to flee to Switzerland in 1938, the human figure was his life-long subject. His art, shown in solo exhibitions since 1956, manifests its form within spatial surroundings, as a head, half-figure, standing or lying nude, almost archaic in appearance but always anchored in the now. On a closer look, one is fascinated by the intensely worked surfaces of his figures, executed in plaster, then cast in brass, modeled in light to almost pictorial effect, especially in the reliefs, which change with every movement. "To me all that's important is the relationship between the figure, its separate components, and what the background surface is like," the artist says in conversation with Hans Ulrich Obrist. "If you take anything away there is nothing left. Nothing at all remains . . . What that means for our time I don't know." This mixture of material work and an existentialist view of the human condition is the cause of Josephsohn's growing importance for the art of our time. Originally shown at Galerie Max Hetzler in Berlin and London, a generous offering of his works can be studied here, while essays and a selection of press releases illuminate his working process as well as the growing reception of this unique artistic oeuvre.