Robert S. Gessner
Born in 1908.
Died in 1982.
Robert Salomon Gessner, generally cited as Robert S. As described in the available notices, his production encompassed a range of fields — illustration, exhibition design, reliefs, murals, as well as the creation of costumes and stage sets — testifying to a versatile practice oriented towards concrete applications of the image.
After practical training as a window dresser at the Jelmoli department store in Zurich (1925–1927), he turned to formal art studies. From 1927 to 1931, he attended the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich, initially in Alfred Johann Altherr’s class and subsequently in the graphic design class, where he worked under the direction of teachers including Walter Roshardt, Ernst Keller, Karl Otto Hügin, Otto Meyer‑Amden and Ernst Gubler.
A substantial part of his professional career unfolded at the Kunstgewerbeschule Zürich: from 1940 to 1956 he was responsible for the training of apprentices and volunteers; in 1944–1945 he served as a Hilfslehrer; and from 1957 to 1963 he worked as a specialist teacher in drawing, as pro-rector under Hans Fischli, and as director of apprentice training. At the same time, the sources record several stays on the island of Ibiza between 1957 and 1963, a period that partially coincided with his teaching responsibilities.
In terms of exhibition activity, Gessner presented his work repeatedly in Switzerland: the record notes an exhibition at Galerie Orell Füssli in Zurich in 1949, presentations at Galerie Chichio Haller in 1950 and 1963, a series of events at Galerie Läubli (1958, 1960, 1966, 1968, 1971), as well as exhibitions at Galerie Trittligasse (1973, 1975, 1977) — the latter gallery also organised a posthumous event in 1983.
The reassessment and documentation of his œuvre led to a monograph by Eugen Gomringer in 1991 (Der Zürcher Künstler im Spannungsfeld der Konkreten Kunst), as well as posthumous exhibitions, including a presentation at Villa Dessauer in Bamberg in 2012; the notice also lists a Kunststiftung bearing his name, and the SIKART record documenting him carries the identifier 4002019 and gives his dates of life as 1908–1982.
In view of the available information, his career combines technical and graphic training, an extended teaching activity and an artistic practice adaptable to applied formats — exhibitions, stage sets and murals — with this hybridity also reflected in the multiplicity of exhibition venues and projects recorded.
