Figure IV

History of the work

On the Einstein terrace, at the back of the building at Sidlerstrasse 5, stands a sculpture of Cristallina marble. Hans Aeschbacher made “Figur IV” (Figure IV); the city's register dates it to 1961. The building behind it is the university's Institute of Exact Sciences, built for the Canton of Bern by Hans and Gret Reinhard from 1959 to 1961. According to the city's building inventory it is the only building on the Grosse Schanze not designed in neo-Baroque or neo-Renaissance forms.

Small preliminary studies for the work turn up on the art market today. A Paris gallery describes a brass sculpture, “Skulptur VII” of 1960, as the project for the marble figure erected in front of the institute in 1961. A Zurich auction house, on the other hand, calls “Figur XVII” of 1959 the model and dates the marble figure to 1960, carried out on behalf of Wanner AG in Horgen. The information on year, model and commission therefore partly contradicts itself.

Hans Aeschbacher (1906–1980) came from Zurich. He trained as a printer, later as a stucco worker, and made his first sculptures in the 1930s. The Historical Dictionary of Switzerland describes his path from massive nudes to a lyrical, geometric abstraction; later came translucent works in acrylic glass and concrete. He received the C. F. Meyer Prize in 1947 and the Hans Arp Prize in 1966, and he exhibited at the Venice Biennale and at documenta in Kassel. In 1961, the year the figure was installed in Bern, the Kunsthalle Bern gave him a solo exhibition.

Cristallina marble comes from the area around Peccia in Ticino, where a sculpture school works with it. The terraces of the Grosse Schanze are younger than the buildings behind them: they were created between 1957 and 1967, when the slope was cut back for the railway. According to the building inventory, the institute also has another artwork worth looking out for: a moiré object made of two curved perforated metal sheets by Werner Witschi, dated 1974.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Sidlerstrasse 5 · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Baugruppe Grosse Schanze · Galerie (anticstore): Hans Aeschbacher, Skulptur VII, 1960 · Germann Auktionshaus Zürich: Hans Aeschbacher, Figur XVII, 1959 · HLS: Aeschbacher, Hans · Wikipedia: Hans Aeschbacher · Wikipedia: Hans Aeschbacher · Kunst und Stein 04/2016 (marmo.ch): Nachruf Mariann Grunder, Cristallina-Marmor in Peccia