Bernhard Luginbühl

Hans Bernhard Luginbuhl ( born February 16, 1929 in Bern, † 19 February 2011 Langnau im Emmental ) was a Swiss sculptor and metal sculptor.

Life and work

Luginbuhl grew up in Bern. Since its sculptor teaching, he worked as a freelance artist, partly together with his wife Ursi, and the three sons of Brutus, Basil and Ivan. With the Swiss artist Jean Tinguely he had a long and deep friendship. 1950 and 1956 he was awarded a Federal Art Scholarship. He lived since 1965 in Mötschwil on a farm that has been converted in the sculpture park of the Luginbühlstiftung.

He became famous in the late 1950s as a sculptor. Particularly impressed by his work which he designed from material which he found in scrap yards or disused industrial plants. The Plastic Slim aggression was the first time in 1959 at the First Swiss Horticultural Exhibition G | presented 59 as part of the abstract, internationally acknowledged garden of the poet Ernst Cramer. With the plastic Tell ( 1966), the represented Switzerland at the World Exhibition in Montreal in 1967. He took part in documenta III in Kassel in 1964, and he was also represented at documenta 6 in 1977 as an artist.

In 1968 he presented the Kunsthalle Bern on his Grand Cyclops. More mobile giants of iron are the Atlas (1970), the scarab (1978 ), the frog ( 1986/1987 ) and the Twin ( 2003). Much attention was given in 1989, the exhibition of his metal sculptures at the Cultural Center indoor arena (Bern).

Bernhard Luginbuhl died shortly after his 82nd birthday on February 19, 2011.

In the old abattoir in Burgdorf, there is a Luginbuhl Museum.

Iron sculptures in public space

Many of his structures are placed in public spaces, such as the tall giraffe in Zurich, also in Zurich the silver painted Silver Ghost (1966 ) or the anvil in Muttenz.

In Hamburg, two of his works. His plate plastic from industrial steel Small Cyclops from 1967 got its place of honor in front of the Hamburger Kunsthalle. His 25 -ton iron sculpture Hafentorfigur of 1981/1982, which looks like a dragonfly and is made of the rudder of a giant tanker, is on the flood protection system Johannisbollwerk against the Swedish Seamen's Church.

Hotel de la Gare in Sugiez many artworks by Bernhard Luginbuhl are issued. This is due to the long-standing friendship with the owner Luginbühl Hans -Ueli Leisi. In December 2007, opened "Bar des Artistes " at the same hotel, a further platform for Bernhard Luginbuhl. The Artist Luginbuhl family has now dumped a permanent exhibition and many of her works at the Hotel de la Gare.

Combustion actions

With its spectacular combustion actions he began in 1976 on the Allmendfeld in Bern. He let rise the huge wooden structures anger in flames, accompanied with music and fireworks and accompanied by eating and drinking. The Berlin anger burned in 1981 in Berlin- Kreuzberg and the last wrath 1983 in Burgdorf. At the Zurich Sechseläutenplatz was allowed him on the occasion of his 70th birthday, burn the figure Firewheel. At the Millennium New Year's Eve he burned on the belts (mountain ), the 24 meter long and 10 meter high sculpture New Year's Eve, a work in which 10 people had been working for a year. The Stansstaderstrasse dragon he burned on 1 August 2002 on Lake Lucerne.

Film Director

Luginbuhl also worked as a film director. He directed the animated film drama of the lonely dog ( 1967), in the documentary film Emmental Small (1970) and in the portrait film The artist Adolf Wölfli (1977).

His work has been documented by Fredi M. Murer film Bernhard Luginbuhl (1966) and in the video Bernhard Luginbuhl II ( 1989) by Peter Guyer.

Everyday art

For the Swiss mint, he designed the front of a commemorative coin in 1982. The coin represents the Gotthard Railway