Alfonso Hüppi. Folds, flaps, crumples | Art Store
Museum Sankturbanhof and Van Ham Art Estate present "Alfonso Hüppi. Folds, flaps, crumples"
From 21 October 2023 to 11 February 2024, the Museum Sankturbanhof in Sursee presents the exhibition "Alfonso
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Museum Sankturbanhof and Van Ham Art Estate present "Alfonso Hüppi. Folds, flaps, crumples"
From 21 October 2023 to 11 February 2024, the Museum Sankturbanhof in Sursee presents the exhibition "Alfonso Hüppi. Falten Klappen Knautschen" ("Alfonso Hüppi. Folds, flaps, crumples"), curated by Barbara Ruf. This catalogue presents the carefully curated selection of wood works on view and for sale during the exhibition. Multi-layered reliefs, wooden carpets, triangles and staccati works blur the boundaries between object, sculpture and painting.
Since 2020, VAN HAM Art Estate has represented the artistic estate of Alfonso Hüppi. For further information on the artist and VAN HAM Art Estate, please visit the official Homepage.
The conceptual sculptor and draftsman Alfonso Hüppi (*1935) is one of the most important representatives of the post-war avant-garde and postmodernism. Characteristic of the works of the Swiss is a humorous bricolage aesthetic. The colored wooden works of the well-known professor of the Düsseldorf Art Academy (1974-1999) show a self-reflective work on the concept of the image, which in their brittle sensuality represent experiments in form between abstraction and figuration. His works can be found in the Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the Museum Frieder Burda Baden-Baden and the Kunsthaus Zürich, among others.
In the mid-1960s, Alfonso Hüppi began working on wooden objects, through which he became known. Characteristic of his pallet works is the range and sophistication of color and form. The materials originally used for transporting art change into artful wall objects. The artist uses packaging materials such as pallets, crates and boards made of wood to create colorful sculptures and wall reliefs. Through colored overpaintings or motifs, the artist creates a spatial depth effect. The motif of the tree forms a characteristic feature of the works.
Parallel to the emerging Concept Art and Minimal Art in the 1970s, Alfonso Hüppi focuses on the cube and other geometric forms. Following the principle of "descrambling," "staggering," and "mirroring," he creates monochrome wooden works that are wooden board squares mounted to each other, representing an unfolded cube. The work process is brought to the point here and appears as an overall form.
Alfonso Hüppi's wooden objects of the 1980s vary greatly in size and shape, and small-format painted wooden shingles are created.
For the works from the 1990s onwards, especially the triangles, Alfonso Hüppi now uses other materials in addition to wood, such as handmade iron and Plexiglas edgings. The painted triangles take up the artist's typical head motif.
At the beginning of the 2000s, Alfonso Hüppi produced small-format wooden objects that have their own symbolic language. Faces evoke emotions in a reduced form by means of dice points.
Aspects of the humorous and playful can also be found especially in Alfonso Hüppi's late work from the 2010s. The artist experiments with wooden fragments that allude to the opposition of order and chaos.
Exhibition
"Alfonso Hüppi. Falten Klappen Knautschen", curated by Barbara Ruf at the Museum Sankturbanhof in Sursee
Exhibition duration
21 October 2023 until 11 February 2024
Vernissage
20 October 2023, 6 p.m. with a welcome by Markus Wietlisbach (President of the Sankturbanhof Foundation Sursee) and an exhibition introduction by Barbara Ruf (curator).
The artist will be present.
Exhibition venue:
Museum Sankturbanhof
Theaterstrasse 9
6210 Sursee
Opening hours
Thu. 14 - 20 hrs, Fri. 14 - 17 hrs, Sat & Sun. 11 - 17 hrs
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