Urs Lüthi (born 10 September 1947 in
Kriens
Kriens is a city and a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland.
The municipality lies at the foot of the mountain Pilatus, and is a western suburb of Lucerne.
History
In the oldest documents of the Bened ...
) is a Swiss conceptual artist who attended the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. Noted for using his body and alter ego as the subject of his artworks, he has worked in photography, sculpture, performance, silk-screen, video and painting.
Since 1994, Lüthi has worked as university professor in
Kassel
Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel and the district of the same name and had 201,048 inhabitants in December 2020 ...
, Germany and in 2009 Kassel gave Lüthi the Arnold Bode award.
Luthi and other artists of this period influenced
Lou Reed
Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician, songwriter, and poet. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. ...
. He is mentioned as an influence in Reed's ''
Transformer
A transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces a varying magnetic flux in the transformer' ...
'' album, which contains the hit
drag anthem “
Walk on the Wild Side”. Luthi was part of a group of
Continental European
Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous continent of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by ...
artists who were interested in, and “voiced, in their work, a desire for a
utopian
A utopia ( ) typically describes an imaginary community or society that possesses highly desirable or nearly perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', describing a fictional island society ...
conception of
androgyny
Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to biological sex, gender identity, or gender expression.
When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in ...
, in which they would embody a unified
ambisexuality or realize a perfect union with their lover.”
References
External links
Official website
Living people
1947 births
People from Vorpommern-Greifswald
Swiss contemporary artists
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