Otto Bänninger

Otto Bänninger
Born
Otto Charles Bänninger

(1897-01-24)24 January 1897
Zurich, Switzerland
Died15 May 1973(1973-05-15) (aged 76)
Zurich, Switzerland
Known forFigurative sculpture
Grave of Bänninger at Enzenbühl Cemetery, Zurich

Otto Charles Bänninger (24 January 1897 – 15 May 1973) was a Swiss figurative sculptor who received first prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1942. Trained under Émile-Antoine Bourdelle in Paris, he became known for portraits and monuments.

Biography

Otto Charles Bänninger was born in Zurich on 24 January 1897.[1][2] From 1913 to 1918, he completed an apprenticeship in sculpture under Franz Wanger in Zurich.[1] He then studied at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Paris from 1920 to 1921 under Émile-Antoine Bourdelle.[1][2]

In 1921, Bänninger joined Bourdelle’s private studio as an assistant,[3] and the two became friends.[1] In Bourdelle’s studio, he met the French sculptor Germaine Richier, whom he married in 1929.[2][3] After Bourdelle died in 1929, Bänninger completed several commissions that the older sculptor had left unfinished.[1][2]

A journey through Florence, Rome, Naples and Pompeii in 1928 gave Bänninger the opportunity to study ancient and Renaissance art.[2] He returned to Zurich in 1932, although Paris remained an important working base for several months each year.[2] In 1936, he became a member of the Salon d'Automne.[2] In 1939, he made Zurich his permanent home.[2] He resumed regular visits to Paris after the Second World War.[2][3]

Bänninger and Richier divorced in 1951,[4] and he married Johanna Stern in 1953.[1] He received the first International Prize for Sculpture at the Venice Biennale in 1942 and the City of Zurich Art Prize in 1956.[1][2] He died in Zurich on 15 May 1973.[1][2]

Work

Bänninger was a figurative sculptor whose work drew on classical subjects.[2] During his Paris years, his sculpture was influenced by Auguste Rodin and Émile-Antoine Bourdelle.[2][3] In the 1930s, he developed a more contemplative approach to the classical human figure.[3]

Portraits and monuments were important parts of his work.[2] He produced many portraits during the 1940s.[3] His subjects included the writer Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz, the art collector Oskar Reinhart and the industrialist and collector Emil Bührle.[2][3] From the early 1930s to the 1960s, he received numerous commissions for monuments and architectural sculpture.[2] His public works included the equestrian monument to Henri Guisan in Lausanne, completed in 1967,[2][3] and Die Schreitende in Zurich, commissioned after he won a 1942 City of Zurich competition for a freestanding sculpture on what is now Sechseläutenplatz.[5]

For the 1939 Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich, Bänninger produced the plaster sculpture Knabe mit Pferd.[6] The horse was later destroyed, while the figure of the boy is held by the City of Zurich. The complete work is now known only from photographs.[6]

Legacy

Bänninger became a prominent figure in Swiss sculpture during the interwar and postwar periods, particularly within the country’s modern figurative tradition.[2][6][7] Several of his public sculptures remain in place across Switzerland.[7]

In 2013, his family donated his written estate to the Swiss Art Archive.[7] The collection includes correspondence with his wife, the sculptor Germaine Richier, as well as letters from artists and writers, including Cuno Amiet and Hermann Hesse.[7]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Bhattacharya, Tapan (19 December 2024). "Otto Charles Bänninger". Historisches Lexikon der Schweiz (HLS) (in German). Retrieved 18 July 2026.
  2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 Schrödter, Susanne (2010). "Otto Charles Bänninger". SIKART Lexikon zur Kunst in der Schweiz (in German). Retrieved 18 July 2026.
  3. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Buste de Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz (Bust of Charles Ferdinand Ramuz)". Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts Lausanne. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
  4. ↑ Kesser, Caroline (October 2014). "Pferd: Ein Werk von Otto Charles Bänninger" (PDF). Kunst und Bau (in German). City of Zurich. Retrieved 18 July 2026.
  5. ↑ Hosmann, Annik (12 October 2022). "«Die Schreitende» geht noch einmal über den Sechseläutenplatz". Tages-Anzeiger (in German). Retrieved 19 July 2026.
  6. 1 2 3 Hotea, Meda Diana (6 November 2009). "Kunst an der Landi: Otto Charles Bänninger". ETHeritage (in German). ETH Library. Retrieved 19 July 2026.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Der schriftliche Nachlass des Bildhauers Otto Charles Bänninger. Korrespondenz, biografische Dokumente und Sammlungen". SIK-ISEA (in German). Swiss Institute for Art Research. 19 June 2018. Retrieved 19 July 2026.

Further reading

  • Wikimedia Commons logo Media related to Otto Bänninger at Wikimedia Commons
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