In the Middle Realm III, 1994, acrylic, 50x70 inches

H. A. Sigg
Paintings, Sculptures, & Collage

Westwood Gallery NYC hosted the first comprehensive North American survey of paintings, sculpture and collage by contemporary Swiss artist, Herman Alfred Sigg. The exhibition included nearly 50 paintings, collages and sculptures in the artist’s bold, abstract style.

While the work of H. A. Sigg has been exhibited regularly throughout Switzerland since 1950 and widely collected by Swiss museums, corporations and individuals, his art was largely to American audiences. H. A. Sigg: Recent Work features a number of paintings from the series In the Land of the River and In the Middle Realm, where subject matter has been reduced to elemental forms. The surfaces of these paintings are brushy and expressive, openly revealing the artist’s hand.

“The works included in this exhibition”, Robert M. Murdock writes in his catalogue essay, “can only begin to suggest the depth and richness in the art of H. A. Sigg… Presenting his work in New York, a city that historically has embraced new art and artists from Europe, and where Abstract Expressionism developed and flourished, seems particularly appropriate.”

The exhibition also includes a selection of ten sculptures constructed from found materials. Though intimate in scale, these three-dimensional works are formal and totemic, recalling Cubist collage and sculpture as well as the frontal columns and “walls” of Louise Nevelson.

Under the Sign of the River III, 1990, Acrylic on canvas, 64 x 46 inches

About the Artist

Born in Zurich in 1924, H. A. Sigg spent his childhood in the nearby village of Oberhasli. After studying at the School of Applied Art in Zurich with former Bauhaus master and color theorist Johannes Itten, Sigg attended the Academié André Lhote in Paris, immersing himself in French art and culture. Although the artist returned to Switzerland and settled there permanently, he made numerous extended study trips around the world, developing a personal vocabulary of color, shapes and composition inspired by his reverence for nature. Following a trip to Southeast Asia in 1968, as “artist in residence for the sky” for Swissair, aerial landscape subjects and river imagery became increasingly evident in his paintings. The river appears as an abstract symbol in many of the works in this exhibition, alternately as a meandering gestual line or a bold, calligraphic stroke. The artist sees the river as a “mysterious force” with a spirit of its own – a metaphor for life itself and mankind’s quest for enlightenment.

Other important influences for the artist include trips to India, Thailand, China, Nepal and Cambodia. The elementary geometric forms and complex spatial relationships of Asian and Indian temple architecture inspired a new series of paintings, In the Middle Realm, many of which are included in this exhibition. Eighteen small-scale collages are also shown there, adding to the viewer’s understanding of the structure and content of the artist’s work.

The work of H. A. Sigg is represented in numerous public and private collections, including Museum of Modern Art, Zurich; Swiss Federal Government Collection, Bern; Buehrle Collection, Zurich; and Hahnloser Collection, Fribourg, among others. H. A. Sigg: Recent Work was funded by a generous grant from PRO HELVETIA, Arts Council of Switzerland. A portion of proceeds from soles during this show will be donated to the Swiss institute – New York. An illustrated catalogue with an essay by Robert M. Murdock is available upon request.

In the Middle Realm VII, 1995, acrylic on canvas, 91 x 54 inches