Hans Rudolf Bosshard(*1929 Balm-Lottstetten), Twelve variations on a dice theme
, 1962. Portfolio with inserted cover sheet and twelve woodcuts on thin Japanese paper. Copy no. 2/10, sheet dimensions 61 cm (height) x 47 cm (width). Woodcuts each signed “Hans Bosshard” in lead, dated “[19]62” and numbered.
- Portfolio somewhat dusty and bumped, sheets with very occasional wood inclusions due to production.
- The Musical Proportions of the Cube -
With the musical terminology given in the title, "Variations on a Theme," Hans Rudolf Bossard makes it clear that the twelve images are not to be viewed as a sequence alone, but that they interlock like a sequence of notes. The artist has also materialized the interlocking, which corresponds to a musical theme, through the semi-transparent, thin Japanese paper. When the prints are placed on top of each other, the lower sheets shine through, so that in addition to black and white, shades of gray are also part of the rhythmic spatial structure, creating the impression of a depth structure that is only revealed. The "cube theme" depicted on the title page as a complex and precise interlocking is presented in the graphics - in analogy to the music - as a visual sequence of spatial sounds. In this way, Bossard activates musical principles for the minimalist Op Art of the time, whereby his prints develop a special effect through the intensity of the black, since Bossard did not produce screen prints 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.”
