Hans Josephsohn was a Swiss sculptor whose work stands out for its engagement with the human figure, rendered through a deeply personal and tactile approach. His sculptures reveal a timeless quality, focusing on presence, memory, and the existential conditions of human life. Born in Königsberg, East Prussia, Josephsohn’s early years were marked by the upheavals of 20th century Europe. As a Jewish artist, he fled Nazi Germany in 1938, finding refuge in Switzerland. This displacement profoundly shaped his work, notably a sensitivity to the fragility and resilience of human existence. Settling in Zurich, he studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule and later at the Kunstschule in Zurich. Early in his career, Josephsohn lived remote from the major art centers, which allowed him to develop an idiosyncratic artistic language largely independent of prevailing trends.
Josephsohn’s work centers around the human figure with an approach different from classical sculpture. Instead of striving for exact likeness or idealized beauty, his sculptures emphasize mass, volume, and presence. His figures are often simplified and abstracted, yet they convey a powerful sense of corporeality and emotional depth. He worked mainly in plaster, frequently leaving the material’s texture visible and unpolished. This rawness accentuates the physicality of his pieces, inviting viewers to witness the artist’s hand and process. Many of his sculptures were later cast in bronze, but the plaster originals remain vital to understanding his method. Josephsohn’s work includes a variety of forms: standing figures, seated and reclining figures and portrait reliefs. He often revisited the same figure or pose, exploring subtle variations and the changing effects of time and memory on form. Josephsohn’s sculptures embody a tension between presence and absence, permanence and decay. His figures appear simultaneously solid and vulnerable, enduring yet marked by time. This duality reflects existential themes such as mortality, memory, and the passage of life. The sculptures stand as silent witnesses to life, inviting contemplation rather than direct interpretation.
For much of his career, Josephsohn has worked quietly, outside the limelight of the contemporary art scene. However, his reputation is growing significantly, with major retrospectives and exhibitions introducing his work to a broader international audience. His work has been exhibited in prominent museums including the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris and the Kunsthaus Zürich. Artists and critics have praised Josephsohn for his unique contribution to modern sculpture—one that balances figuration and abstraction, tradition and innovation.
