Hans Josephsohn, a Swiss sculptor of late fame

Hans Josephson among his works in his Zurich studio, February 2, 2004.

Keystone

Hans Josephsohn is in the spotlight at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, which is devoting a retrospective to him, the first in France. Died in Zurich in 2012, at the age of 92, the artist had to wait until the early 2000s to finally achieve international success.

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December 3, 2024 – 09:55

He could have been a great character in a novel, as his life is stormy, studded with happy and bitter events, rich in female loves and artistic works which make him one of the most talented Swiss sculptors. Hans Josephsohn, that’s who we’re talking about, is on display at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris. A retrospective of his work, the first in France, is being held there until February 16.

Exhibited regularly in Switzerland and Germany since the beginning of the 2000s, Hans Josephsohn, whose notoriety is late, is little known in France; and even less so in the United States where no major American institution has devoted a retrospective to him to date.

Benefit from visibility

The first monographic exhibition reserved for him, outside Switzerland and Germany, was held at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam in 2002. “It was time to give Josephsohn the space he deserves in Paris, at the Museum of Modern Art, our mission being to reach out to artists who have not benefited from great visibility with us,” confides Jessica Castex, exhibition curator at the aforementioned museum.

The Museum of Modern Art in Paris is devoting the first exhibition on French soil to the Swiss sculptor Hans Josephson.

Pierre Antoine

With Cornelius Tittel, editor-in-chief of the art magazine “Blau International”, and Albert Oehlen, German painter, she is curating this retrospective which brings together sculptures largely from the Kesselhaus Josephsohn in Saint-Gall. Created in 2003, this emblematic place has over time become an institution where the works and archives of the Swiss sculptor are kept.

Hans Josephsohn was around 18 years old when he arrived in Zurich. The year is 1938, National Socialism is worrying Europe. Josephsohn is Jewish. Born in 1920 in Königsberg (East Prussia), he grew up in Nazi Germany, which he inevitably fled. “He is prohibited from entering an art school in Germany. His parents then encouraged him to go to Italy. A scholarship holder, he entered the Accademia di Belle Arti in Florence, but very quickly was forced to leave the country due to the racial laws decreed by the fascist regime,” says Jessica Castex.

Difficult beginnings

Hans Josephson poses in his studio in Zurich, July 16, 2004.
Keystone

Destitute upon his arrival in Switzerland, without money, without local knowledge, Josephsohn did not give up. “He knocks on the door of the well-known Swiss sculptor Otto Müller,” underlines Jessica Castex. Otto provides him with initial, very valuable support. He will train him and reinforce the idea that he is a true sculptor.

Other support will come later, provided by Swiss artists from different disciplines, including the architect Peter Märkli. “It is he who is at the origin of La Congiunta, a friendly place, located in Giornico (Ticino), which today hosts a group of sculptures by Josephsohn,” specifies the curator.

Friendship heals wounds. Jürg Hassler, a director who admires Josephsohn, dedicated a documentary to the latter released in 1977 under the title “Josephsohn, Stein des Anstosses”. Screened in the last room of the exhibition, the film welcomes Josephsohn’s confidences. Talking relieves! We thus discover the artist’s life, his adolescence, his annoyances, his difficult beginnings.

Coming from a middle-class family, the future sculptor saw his parents become impoverished and worried about the rise of Nazism. They even go so far as to forbid him from playing outside with his friends.

Slender women and massive shapes

We could see in Hans Josephsohn’s (plaster) sculptures (mainly silhouettes and female figures) a resurgence of his traumas. The slender, slender women of the 1950s were replaced by thick bodies and faces where the features (mouth, eyes, nose, etc.) disappeared, giving way to an indefinite mass. A disfigurement in short.

Hans Josephsohn seen by Albert Oehlen, at the Musée d'art Moderne in Paris.

Work of Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris.

Pierre Antoine

Jessica Castex offers a different reading of Josephsohn’s art. She specifies: “There is no story in his work, no historical or psychological narration. Hans did not work on portraits, what he wanted was to convey a presence.”

The presence in the first room of a standing, slender woman is a “reminiscence of the silhouette” of Mirjam Abeles, the sculptor’s first wife. When we discover it at the beginning of the exhibition, we immediately think of Giacometti. However, Josephsohn never met the Ticino man. “But he was necessarily imbued with the culture of the time, even if he never had a spiritual father or mentor,” explains Jessica Castex.

Hans Josephsohn was strongly inspired by Alberto Giacometti, without ever meeting him.

Pierre Antoine

The avant-gardes

A question nags the visitor: why did Josephsohn not experience the worldwide fame of Giacometti? “Because unlike the latter, he did not live and work in Paris, where belonging to an avant-garde group at the beginning of the last century contributed to the launch of an international career,” notes Jessica Castex.

And added: “Josephsohn himself did not seek to connect with the avant-gardes. His source of inspiration was ancient, Egyptian and Assyrian art. He wasn’t chasing recognition either. He put all his energy into his work in the workshop. It was a daily ritual at his house. His solitary journey commands admiration. It was not until the early 2000s that his international notoriety took off. He owes it to the Zurich gallery owner Bob van Orsouw.

Text reread and verified by Samuel Jaberg

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