Kurt Laurenz Metzler
Born in 1941.
Died in 2024.
Kurt Laurenz Metzler (1941–2024) turns the city into a theatre of silhouettes. Born in Balgach, in the canton of St. Gallen, and trained in sculpture in Zurich, this Swiss artist places the human figure at the centre of a body of work that often unfolds beyond museums, in squares and places of passage. His encounter with the New York art scene nourished a free language in which bold colour and humour stand alongside close observation of contemporary life.
His passers-by, newspaper readers and “city men” have nothing of the heroic portrait about them. Elongated bodies, sometimes disconcerting postures, hollowed-out volumes or emphatic heads give each figure an immediate presence while allowing a sense of fragility to emerge. Metzler moves from stone and bronze to iron, aluminium and painted resins.
The material may be massive, but the composition often suggests movement and lightness. In his figures of readers, the newspaper becomes almost an extension of the body; in the Luftmenschen, which appeared from the 1990s onwards, emptiness itself participates in defining the silhouette. This tension between mass and absence, between play and unease, gives the figures their singular strength.
Public space is one of the preferred arenas of this exploration. Artisten was installed at Bucheggplatz in Zurich in 1975; groups such as Building People and Urban People were installed in Singapore in 2009. In 1995, Metzler opened a sculpture park near Siena, at Iesa, conceived around his home and studio.
There, the works engage in dialogue with the Tuscan landscape, while those in the cities interrupt the daily rhythm of passers-by. In both cases, the viewer is invited to recognise, behind the exuberance of the forms, a sensitive chronicle of the way we inhabit the world.
