Hermann Obrist (23 May 1862 at Kilchberg (near

Zürich , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich ...

), Switzerland – 26 February 1927,

Munich Munich ( ; german: München ; bar, Minga ) is the capital and most populous city of the German state of Bavaria. With a population of 1,558,395 inhabitants as of 31 July 2020, it is the third-largest city in Germany, after Berlin and Ha ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

) was a Swiss

sculptor Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts that operates in three dimensions. Sculpture is the three-dimensional art work which is physically presented in the dimensions of height, width and depth. It is one of the plastic arts. Durable sc ...

of the

Jugendstil ''Jugendstil'' ("Youth Style") was an artistic movement, particularly in the decorative arts, that was influential primarily in Germany and elsewhere in Europe to a lesser extent from about 1895 until about 1910. It was the German counterpart of ...

and Art Nouveau movement. He studied Botany and History in his youth; the influence of those subjects is detected in his later work in the field of applied arts. As a teacher, Hermann Obrist exerted a seminal influence on the rise and subsequent development of Jugendstil in Germany.

Biography

Hermann Obrist was the son of Doctor Carl Kaspar Obrist, of Zurich, and Alice Jane Grant Duff, sister of the British politician and statesman Mountstuart Grant Duff. He studied natural sciences and medicine in Heidelberg, and made several trips during which he had visions that determined his artistic vocation. After deciding in 1887 to follow this path, he enrolled at the School of Applied Arts in

Karlsruhe Karlsruhe ( , , ; South Franconian: ''Kallsruh'') is the third-largest city of the German state (''Land'') of Baden-Württemberg after its capital of Stuttgart and Mannheim, and the 22nd-largest city in the nation, with 308,436 inhabitants. ...

to study art techniques. He received an award for his ceramics and furniture at the Paris Exposition of 1889. In 1890, he entered the sculpture class at the Académie Julian in Paris. The following year, he moved to Berlin where he earned his living mainly as a journalist for the cultural pages. In 1892, the sale of a fountain model gave him the means to move to Florence where he opened with Berthe Ruchet, an embroidery workshop, which he moved to Munich in 1895. Its ornamental embroideries and sculptures experienced growing success in Germany. In 1902 Obrist and

Wilhelm von Debschitz Wilhelm Siegfried Kurt von Debschitz (21 February 1871 – 10 March 1948) was a German painter, interior designer, craftsman, art teacher and founding director of an influential art school in Munich. Early life and education He was born on 2 ...

co-founded a design school in Munich, Debschitz School (1902–1914). Students of his included Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack, who also studied at the

Bauhaus The Staatliches Bauhaus (), commonly known as the Bauhaus (), was a German art school operational from 1919 to 1933 that combined crafts and the fine arts.Oxford Dictionary of Art and Artists (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 4th edn., 20 ...

.(fr
Dictionnaire historique de la Suisse, Herman
/ref> He then engaged in an intense activity as author and speaker and spoke of relations with other artists such as Wassily Kandinsky. Obrist left the Debschitz School in 1904. Obrist commissioned his friend

August Endell August Endell (1871–1925) was a designer, writer, teacher, and German architect. He was one of the founders of the Jugendstil movement, the German counterpart of Art Nouveau. His first marriage was with Elsa von Freytag-Loringhoven. Life Augus ...

to design his studio in

, built in 1897 and destroyed in 1944, during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

. Obrist's works included fountains and funerary monuments. He often used concrete for his works. In addition to being a sculptor he was also a textile artist. Obrist's most famous and influential work was the design for an 1892 embroidered wall hanging called "Cyclamen". It featured a series of elegant, looping curves of cyclamen flowers, described as whiplash curves, or ''Peitschenhieb'' in German, and became a seminal work of the Art Nouveau movement.

Literature

* ''Hermann Obrist. Sculptur/Space/Abstraction around 1900,'' exhib. cat. Museum für Gestaltung Zürich / Staatliche Graphische Sammlung München / Henry Moore Institute Leeds, ed. by Eva Afuhs and Andreas Strobl, Zürich: Scheidegger & Spiess 2009. ISBN 9783858812391

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Obrist, Hermann Art Nouveau sculptors 1863 births 1927 deaths Swiss sculptors Swiss people of British descent Swiss emigrants to Germany People from Horgen District Académie Julian alumni 20th-century German sculptors 20th-century German male artists 19th-century German sculptors