Chalice Stem

History of the work

On the lawn north-west of the eye clinic, north of the building at Freiburgstrasse 8, stands an iron sculpture in Corten steel: the 'Kelch-Stengel' (Chalice Stem) by Jimmy F. Schneider from 1977. Corten steel forms a rust-red protective layer on its surface. The artists' lexicon SIKART lists the work among Schneider's pieces as a steel sculpture at the Inselspital.

The title belongs to a group of works. According to SIKART, with the 'chalices' Schneider returned to the massive elements of his earlier 'cupboards' without taking up their closed form again. The lexicon calls the 'Doppelkelch' (Double Chalice) of 1972 outside the Bern School of Design monumental. A 'Kelch, symmetrisch' stands in the Dählhölzli zoo, and in the same year as the sculpture at the Inselspital he made a 'Kelch-Form' for the Thun Süd shopping centre.

Schneider was born in Bern on 6 August 1923 and died there on 12 April 1995. From 1939 to 1943 he trained as a locksmith in the city's training workshops, and from 1950 to 1952 he attended the School of Applied Arts, where Dieter Roth and Rolf Iseli were among his circle. After that he painted almost exclusively. His friendship with Bernhard Luginbühl proved decisive: Schneider helped him build his studio house in Moosseedorf in 1951 and taught him to weld. With a federal art commission award he bought a vice and a welding set in 1960, painted his last picture that year and made his 'First Iron Picture'.

According to SIKART, Schneider carried the geometric forms of his late paintings into space, from the flat iron picture to the relief and finally the free-standing sculpture. On site it is also worth looking at the surface: the rust-red layer that Corten steel forms protects the metal underneath.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Jimmy Schneider (Anita Haldemann) · Wikimedia Commons: Cortenstahlplastik Kelch-Stengel (Jimmy F. Schneider 1977)