Tomb of Kurt Schaufelberger

History of the work

In field B6 of the Bremgarten cemetery, on the grave of Kurt Schaufelberger, stands a chrome steel sculpture made in 1983 by the Bernese artist Willy Weber. The city's register of public art calls it an explosion sculpture; Wikimedia Commons lists it as an untitled chrome steel sculpture. The available sources say nothing about the commission, the dimensions or how it was made.

Weber (1933–1998) was born in Bern and, according to SIKART, grew up in Muri. After a commercial apprenticeship he spent a year in Algeria in 1956 and then taught himself to paint. In 1962 he made his first explosion sculptures from brass or iron plates. SIKART describes how precisely he measured the charges on the front and back, so that the bulges and openings could be calculated in advance. Later he chrome-plated and polished the surfaces so that viewers see themselves reflected in them; Wikipedia gives the year 1967 for this, SIKART 1968. As the starting point of the exploded reliefs, Wikipedia names a brass plate he shot through in 1960.

In the 1960s Weber belonged to the Bernese avant-garde promoted by Harald Szeemann at the Kunsthalle Bern; in 1964 Szeemann showed him in the exhibition 'Licht und Form' (Light and Form). In 1969 Weber represented Switzerland at the São Paulo Biennial and in 1972 at the Venice Biennale. In 1971 the Swiss Confederation gave his large chrome steel relief 'Apollo X' to the Kennedy Center in Washington. In Bern, his works 'See' (Lake, 1972) and 'O.K.' (1976) stand at the Neufeld university sports hall (SIKART, Wikipedia).

According to SIKART, from 1982 Weber inserted torsos and body fragments in grey cast iron or brass into his explosion sculptures. The grave sculpture of 1983 belongs to this late period; whether it contains such parts cannot be told from the sources. On site it is worth looking at the deformed, mirroring surface from different angles, as the reflected image of the surroundings changes with every step.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikimedia Commons: Chromstahlplastik ohne Titel (Willy Weber 1983) · SIKART: Willy Weber (Lexikonartikel Regina Bühlmann) · Wikipedia (de): Willy Weber (Künstler) · Wikipedia (de): Bremgartenfriedhof