Culture Sculptor Schang Hutter's major theme was the human being

The Solothurn sculptor Schang Hutter (1934-2021) would have been 90 years old on Sunday. With his figures, the artist wanted to show what people have to endure because of people.

The former mayor of Bern, Alexander Tschäppät, once said of the Solothurn artist's work that it was "characterized from the very beginning by the existential experience that man is threatened, injured, tortured and enslaved by man".

Hutter was born in Solothurn on August 11, 1934. Like his father, he learned the craft of stone sculpting and later studied at the Bern School of Arts and Crafts and the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.

He had traveled to Munich as a young artist in the hope of sculpting beautiful women. This hope turned out to be illusory. More often than beautiful women, Hutter came across broken people who described their terrible war experiences to him.

Hutter lived in post-war Munich until 1961, and he began to come to terms with these years artistically after his return to Solothurn. His "Dying Prisoner" (1964-1972) is considered an important memorial to the victims of the concentration camps. Hutter created it based on a photograph of an emaciated man "who crawled towards the liberators and died shortly before reaching them".

Committed to humanism

Hutter's political art is committed to a strong sense of humanism. His work has been awarded numerous prizes, including scholarships from the Free State of Bavaria and the Polish state, the Promotion Prize and Art Prize of the Canton of Solothurn and the Prize of the Foundation for Graphic Art in Switzerland.

Hutter died in Solothurn on June 14, 2021 after a serious illness.

Until September 15, the exhibition "Art and War. On the 90th birthday of Schang Hutter" will run until 15 September as a tribute to the sculptor, draughtsman and printer.