HANS JOSEPHSOHN

Early Years

Born in a Jewish family, in 1937 Josephsohn went to Florence to study art, but due to the rise of the Nazis the following year he fled to Switzerland. The rest of his family were unable to flee and were killed.

Josephsohn moved into his first studio in Zurich in 1943, and started to study sculpture under Otto Müller in 1953. He explored London in 1947, and in 1950 made the first of many trips to Italy.

In 1964, he acquired Swiss citizenship and started to exhibit his work. However it wasn’t until the start of the 2000s, with his solo and group exhibitions at venues like the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam (2002), the Kolumba museum in Cologne (2005), the Palais de Tokyo in Paris (2007), and the Museum of Modern Art in Frankfurt (solo, 2008) that he became well known.

Hans Josephsohn Artworks

Hans Josephsohn’s solid human forms have a primal or geological ambience due to their formal simplicity, lack of individualistic detail, and imposing scale. His solid, chunky shapes are elemental and generic—and are not to do with narration or individuality—aiming at simplicity and a raw earthy presence. He usually worked from posed models, normally women. The works with a little detail reference early Assyrian, Greek, and Egyptian sculpture, such as Untitled (Ruth) (1969) and Untitled (1993).

Sometimes the sheer avoidance of overt description or individual particularity, whilst presenting a vaguely lumpy human form and extolling the rudimentary, links Josephsohn’s works with very early prehistoric sculpture. Sometimes it is a hunch that tells the first-time viewer the coarsely textured work is based on the human form. Examples include Untitled (1994), Untitled (Verena) (1985), Untitled (Verena) (1987), Untitled (1991).

Awards and Accolades

Josephsohn was awarded the Zurich Art Prize in 2003.

Exhibitions

Hans Josephsohn has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.

Solo exhibitions include Hans Josephsohn, Galerie Max Hetzler, Berlin (2022); Hans Josephsohn, Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI), Lugano (2020); Existential Sculpture, Museum Folkwang, Essen (2018); Hans Josephsohn, Modern Art Oxford (2013); Josephsohn, Hauser and Wirth, London (2008).

Group exhibitions include Albert Oehlen: “big paintings by me with small paintings by others”, MASI, Lugano (2021); Hans Josephsohn et al: Swiss sculpture since 1945, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau (2021); Substance, Galerie Laurent Godin, Paris (2015); All back in the skull together, Maccarone Gallery, New York (2015); Il Palazzo Enciclopedico (The Encyclopedic Palace), Venice Biennale (2013); Frauen – Liebe und Leben, Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, Germany (2013).

Collections

Josephsohn’s works are held in the collections of La Congiunta, Giornico, Switzerland; Kesselhaus Josephsohn, St. Gallen, Switzerland; Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau; Kunsthaus Zurich; Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

John Hurrell | Ocula | 2022