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Artists from A-Z Walter Bodmer

1903–1973
  • Bemaltes Metallrelief (1962)
    Bemaltes Metallrelief
    Artist: Walter Bodmer Dating: 1962 Type: Relief Material: Wire and sheet metal on wood panel Measures: 71,3 x 86,2 cm Acces / purchase date: 1962 Inventory number: 0061 Copyright: © Nachlass Walter Bodmer
  • Three-part metal relief (1962)
    Three-part metal relief
    Artist: Walter Bodmer Dating: 1962 Type: Relief Material: Wire and sheet metal on wood panel Measures: 78,5 x 100,5 cm Acces / purchase date: 1962 Inventory number: 0060 Copyright: © Nachlass Walter Bodmer
  • Kaleidoskop (1955)
    Kaleidoskop
    Artist: Walter Bodmer Dating: 1955 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 90 x 110 cm Acces / purchase date: 1956 Inventory number: 0058 Copyright: © Nachlass Walter Bodmer
  • Aus Fragmenten gebaut (1956)
    Aus Fragmenten gebaut
    Artist: Walter Bodmer Dating: 1956 Type: Painting Material: Oil on cardboard Measures: 33,5 x 62,8 cm Acces / purchase date: 1956 Inventory number: 0059 Copyright: © Nachlass Walter Bodmer
  • Improvisation (1953)
    Improvisation
    Artist: Walter Bodmer Dating: 1953 Type: Painting Material: Oil on canvas Measures: 100 x 125 cm Acces / purchase date: 1958 Inventory number: 0057 Copyright: © Nachlass Walter Bodmer
The line can be described as Bodmer's fundamental artistic medium; its use allows us to trace his artistic development: while the line initially serves a representational function, Bodmer later discovers its intrinsic value and abandons representational motifs. His artistic goal was the constructive penetration of the surface into space; this tendency can be observed both within the individual genres and in the chronological sequence from painting to relief and sculpture. With the newly acquired expressive possibilities of the line, the graphic alphabet was completed, with hatching and grid forms proving to be important design elements.

The equivalence of contrasting elements is particularly evident in the paintings, which explore the relationship between form and space. Antithetical moments become visually effective: static-dynamic, centrifugal-centripetal, open-closed, compact-floating. The balance of pictorial means that emerges in the later paintings is expressed, for example, in an interplay of small-scale hatching and wide-ranging colour networks.

Bodmer's fundamental concern, in line with Paul Klee's dictum, is to make the invisible visible. The line plays a constitutive role in this; its function in the artwork ranges from the representation of lyrical-musical elation to the capture of structures.

Hans-Peter Fleury: «Walter Bodmer». In: SIKART Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz, 2010