JOSEF STAUB

Swiss artist Josef Staub, a trained construction foreman, educated himself mainly auto didactically as a painter and sculptor. Starting his career with painting, he then turned to reliefs and finally to sculptures. Inspired by works of Jean Arp, Constantin Brancusi and Max Bill, he committed himself mostly to stainless steel in the 1970s. He then began to produce his characteristic, strictly geometric-abstract figures made of ground and polished stainless steel. The forms and lines each grow out of the surface in such a way that knotted ribbons and endless loops as well as incised squares and triangles with twisted edges and diverging corners emerge. The up to five meters tall sculptures are attached to the floor on a tiny area. Staub outwits gravity by using highly specialized techniques from steel and aircraft construction.
In 2016 works by Josef Staub were shown for the first time at the Galerie Wenger.