´hans Rudolf Bosshard (*1929 Balm-lottstetten), Six Variations On A Circular Theme, 1967

Hans Rudolf Bosshard (*1929 Balm-Lottstetten), Six variations on a circular theme, 1967. Portfolio with inserted cover sheet and six color woodcuts on thin Japanese paper. Copy no. 6/10. Sheet dimensions 64 cm (height) x 45 cm (width). Woodcuts each signed “Hans Bosshard” in lead, dated “[19]67” and numbered.
- Folder somewhat dusty and bumped, sheets very occasionally minimally foxed, the first graphic with a crease in the margin, otherwise in very good condition.



- The Musical Proportions of the Circle -


With the musical terminology given in the title, "Variations on a Theme," Hans Rudolf Bossard makes it clear that the six depictions are not to be regarded as a sequence alone, but interlock like a sequence of notes. The circle is not dissolved into broad layers of lines in a 'free expression', but is broken down according to precise principles into interrelated moments of surface structure, which - as illustrated on the cover sheet - together form a circular shape. The individual states of division are given a rhythmic, melodic variance through the respective color contrast, which in turn contrasts with the color relationships of the other sheets. In this way, Bossard activates musical principles for the minimalist Op Art of the time, whereby his sheets develop a special effect through the intensity of the colors, since Bossard did not produce silkscreens or lithographs as usual, but woodcuts.


About the artist

In 1944, at the age of fifteen, Hans Rudolf Bosshard began an apprenticeship as a typesetter in Schaffhausen, which he completed in 1948. Since then, typography has been a defining leitmotif in Bosshard's artistic work, both in practice and in theory. For 30 years he taught typography at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Zurich and published his findings in various textbooks: Technical Foundations of Type Production (1980), Mathematical Foundations of Type Production (1985), Typography - Type - Readability (1996), and The Typographic Raster (2000).
As a visual artist, he initially worked in an expressionist style. However, the works of Richard Paul Lohse and Max Bill, which inspired him, made it clear that the geometric-mathematical conciseness already applied in typography held an artistic potential that Bossard began to exploit. Throughout his life, however, he remained faithful to the woodcut.


"Not a single one of his compositions is speculative.”

Hans Jörg Wüger