Hans Josephsohn

The work of the Swiss artist Hans Josephsohn (1920-2012), one of thegreat masters of sculpture of the second half of the 20th centuryBorn in 1920 in Eastern Prussia from Jewish parents, Hans Josephsohn left Germanyin 1937 and settled in Florence with the aim of studying art. Forced to leave dueto 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 wasstrongly characterised by the physical and moral devastation left by World War II,Hans Josephsohn developed a language capable to talk about the fragile relationshipof mankind with the surrounding world. He was concerned with representing thehuman being as a figure in space throughout his life. His sculptures are characterisedby an ambivalence of the almost abstract figure whose individuality is secured by itsform, material and surface.The book is published on the occasion of the biggest Josephsohn exhibition at theMusée d’Art Moderne in Paris, curated by the german painter Albert Oehlen. It aimsto show why Josephsohn, though being little known during his lifetime, is recognizedas “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 biographicalessay byJackie Wullschlager, chief-critic of the Financial Times and author of the celebratedbiography Monet. The restless vision; an essay by Max Dax on archetype andan essay on Josephson’s spiritual dimension and archaic qualities by British sculptorThomas Houseago; a photo essay on the Josephsohn-Estate in St. Gallen by leadinginternational photographer François Halard; a wide-ranging oral history compiled outof eight new interviews with Josephsohn’s closest allies and family, including both hiswifes, 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 byFrench philosopher Danièle Cohn about memory, trauma and space in Josephsohn’swork; Josephsohn in his own words and biographical details. The book is designedby the acclaimed art director Mike Meiré and Christopher Tröster.