The
Swiss painter, sculptor and designer Gottfried Honegger was born in 1917. He
studied at the art academy in Zurich (1932) and first worked as a designer
(1933-1936). From the age of 20 he concentrated on graphic and commercial art,
and it was not until 1957, with the creation of his first ‘tableau-relief’, that
his career really began. Painting abstract works influenced by Zurich Concrete
art and by contemporary American painting from 1950 onwards, Honegger developed
as an artist during his stay in New York (1958-60) where his first exhibition
was held at the Martha Jackson Gallery in 1959. In the same year, Alfred Barr,
the Director of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, purchased works by
Honegger.
Honegger
settled in Paris in 1961, where he continued to experiment in painting and
sculpture. His pictures were composed following a system and use simple,
geometric forms in relief, executed in monochrome but with particular attentin
to technique and surface presentation. His shapes (squares, circles) are placed
inside an orthogonal frame, following a pattern established beforehand and
always based on numerical calculation. The paintings are made up of sharp-edged
cardboard pieces placed, with strenghtened backing, on to canvas and covered
with several layers of paint. In this manner, the artist obtained a relief
effect on the surface that catches the light and gives the composition a
changeable quality. Honegger also desired to allow chance to play a role in the
programming of his works. His sculpture, which he produced from 1968 onwards,
uses cubes, spheres and their multiples, producing system-based structures and
relationships. Numerous public commissions in Europe and the USA since 1971
enabled Honegger to apply his theories on a monumental scale. In 1990 he
founded, together with his partner Sybil Albers-Barrier, the “Espace de l'Art
Concret” in Mouans-Sartoux, in the south of France.
Honegger
has been working on a number of public commissions, i. e. in 1982/83 the Régie
Renault in Portugal; in 1986 the Institut National Polytechnique, Nancy; in 1996
he designed the ‘Blue square’ of the university Zurich-Irchel and in 1997 the
metro station Anagnina in Rome. In 1998, he was commissioned by the Ministry of
Culture in France to create a sculpture for the City of Grenoble on the occasion
of the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution. The Arts committee for the
Olympic Games in Seoul bought a large work for permanent installation in the
sculpture park.
Among
many other rewards, Honegger was given an honorary prize at the 4th Biennale of
European Graphic, which took place in Baden-Baden (Germany) in 1985 and in 1987
he received the Prize of Art from the City of Zurich. The French Minister for
Culture appointed him Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres in 1985 and Commandeur
des Arts et des Lettres in 1996. In 1998, Honegger moved from Paris to Cannes in
the South of France.
Numerous exhibitions in museums and galleries worldwide;
his work is to be found in national and international
collections.