Grand Astre 1/3 (Great Star)

History of the work

In the garden of the animal hospital (Tierspital) at Länggassstrasse 120 stands “Grand Astre 1/3”, a bronze by André Ramseyer from 1966. The French title means “great star”. According to the city's register the sculpture bears a stamp naming the Ticino town of Mendrisio. Ramseyer's bronze “Escale” of 1962, now owned by the Centre Pompidou in Paris, was demonstrably cast in Mendrisio: the museum names Bronzart as the foundry and lost-wax casting as the technique.

Ramseyer, a pastor's son, came into the world in Tramelan in the Bernese Jura on 31 January 1914. After qualifying as a teacher in 1932 he studied art in La Chaux-de-Fonds until 1935 and travelled to Paris and Florence. From 1943 he lived in Neuchâtel, where he taught drawing and art history until 1970. In 1949 he worked in Paris in the studio of the sculptor Ossip Zadkine.

After a short figurative phase, for example with “Baigneuse” of 1948, his sculptures became ever more abstract and austere, according to the Historical Dictionary of Switzerland. The English Wikipedia describes circle and curve as recurring basic forms, varied into ellipses, spirals and waves, and names Henry Moore as an important influence on the openings and light in his works. In 1966, the year of the Bern sculpture, Ramseyer received the Jean Arp Prize in Biel.

More than fifty of his works stand in schoolyards and public squares in Switzerland, for instance at ETH Zurich, in Thun and in Biel, with others in Saudi Arabia, Italy, the Netherlands and the USA. Ramseyer died on 15 January 2007 in Neuchâtel; in 2022 his children gave sculptures and drawings to the Fondation Ateliers d'Artiste. If you look closely at the bronze in the hospital garden, you can search for the foundry stamp.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): André Ramseyer · Wikipedia (en): André Ramseyer · HLS: Ramseyer, André · Centre Pompidou: André Ramseyer, Escale (1962) · Wikimedia Commons: Bronzeplastik Grand Astre 1/3 (André Ramseyer 1966)