Go out for a drink? Bitch about the opposite sex? Morris dancing? Whatever it is that you and your mates do when you get together, I’ll bet it doesn’t compare with what Swiss artist Bernhard Luginbühl and his friends used to get up to.
Bernhard Luginbühl and Friends installed at von Bartha, Basel, photo Andreas Zimmermann, courtesy von Bartha
The Swiss contemporary artist, who died in 2011, counted fellow artists Dieter Roth, Jean Tinguely and Alfred Hofkunst among his chums, and together they collaborated on a number of sculptural works which are on show as part of a Luginbühl retrospective at Galerie von Bartha in Basel.
Luginbühl’s sculptural machine-like creations bear the complex and eccentric characteristics of Heath Robinson’s theoretical contraptions, haphazardly assembled using the contents of an industrial artisan’s workshop. Two large-scale corresponding works, Schuh (1979-94) and Haus (1976-94) made with Dieter Roth and Björn Roth, utilise a typically Luginbühl construction which creates a tension between the sense of movement in the cogs and wheels and the rigidity of the supporting structure. Solo works, including smaller wall-mounted pieces, also feature in the exhibition Bernhard Luginbühl and Friends, which runs until 24 October.
Bernhard Luginbühl and Friends installed at von Bartha, Basel, photo Andreas Zimmermann, courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl, Dieter Roth, & Björn Roth,
SCHUH, 1979 – 1994,
various wood, mounted on iron wheel barrow, with glued paint cans and caps, glasses, cardboard, ox skull, work gloves, cigarette butts, spray can, brush, painted by Dieter and Björn Roth in various gloss paint,
343 x 180 x 170cm,
Courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl,
TISCHLEIN DECK DICH CH 64, 1976,
various wooden casting models, screwed and painted in red, beige, black, brown and blue-green, 89.5 x 89.5 x 65cm,
Courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl, Dieter Roth, & Björn Roth,
SCHUH, 1979 – 1994,
various wood, mounted on iron wheel barrow, with glued paint cans and caps, glasses, cardboard, ox skull, work gloves, cigarette butts, spray can, brush, painted by Dieter and Björn Roth in various gloss paint,
343 x 180 x 170cm,
Courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl and Friends installed at von Bartha, Basel, photo Andreas Zimmermann, courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl and Friends installed at von Bartha, Basel, photo Andreas Zimmermann, courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl, Jean Tinguely & Alfred Hofkunst,
Schluckuck, 1978—1979,
iron, 7 drawings,
220 x 163 cm,
Courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl, Dieter Roth, & Björn Roth,
HAUS, 1976 – 1994,
various wood, mounted on iron wheel barrow, on wood panel, with glued paint cans and caps, cardboard and ox skull painted by Dieter and Björn Roth in various gloss paint. In blue and grey sheet metal letters, “Haus” screwed on the wood panel,
308 x 160 x 110cm,
Courtesy von Bartha
Bernhard Luginbühl and Friends is at von Bartha, Basel
from 4 September – 24 October www.vonbartha.com
