Hans Josephsohn

The work of the Swiss artist Hans Josephsohn (1920-2012), one of the

great masters of sculpture of the second half of the 20th century

Born in 1920 in Eastern Prussia from Jewish parents, Hans Josephsohn left Germany

in 1937 and settled in Florence with the aim of studying art. Forced to leave due

to fascist racial laws, he moved to Switzerland, which became his adoptive country.

Josephsohn’s oeuvre has been defined as “existential sculpture”: in a time that was

strongly characterised by the physical and moral devastation left by World War II,

Hans Josephsohn developed a language capable to talk about the fragile relationship

of mankind with the surrounding world. He was concerned with representing the

human being as a figure in space throughout his life. His sculptures are characterised

by an ambivalence of the almost abstract figure whose individuality is secured by its

form, material and surface.

The book is published on the occasion of the biggest Josephsohn exhibition at the

Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris, curated by the german painter Albert Oehlen. It aims

to show why Josephsohn, though being little known during his lifetime, is recognized

as “the most important sculptor since Giacometti” (Jackie Wullschlager).

The book includes a foreword by Fabrice Hergott, director of Musée d’Art Moderne;

an introduction by the exhibition curator, the artist Albert Oehlen; a biographical

essay byJackie Wullschlager, chief-critic of the Financial Times and author of the celebrated

biography Monet. The restless vision; an essay by Max Dax on archetype and

an essay on Josephson’s spiritual dimension and archaic qualities by British sculptor

Thomas Houseago; a photo essay on the Josephsohn-Estate in St. Gallen by leading

international photographer François Halard; a wide-ranging oral history compiled out

of eight new interviews with Josephsohn’s closest allies and family, including both his

wifes, the head of his foundry Felix Lehner as well as the Swiss architect Peter Märkli,

who designed La Congiunta museum for Josephsohn’s works in Ticino; an essay by

French philosopher Danièle Cohn about memory, trauma and space in Josephsohn’s

work; Josephsohn in his own words and biographical details. The book is designed

by the acclaimed art director Mike Meiré and Christopher Tröster.