Jörg Shimon Schuldhess

(1941 Basel - .1992 Basel)

 

Original Engraving - Strange Beasts

 

Dated 1970 / Numbered 02/ 65
Hand signed in pencil by the artist

 

 

Jörg Schulthess was born in Basel, the son of a father from Emmenthal and a sephardic Jewish mother who had emigrated from Italy.

 

Schuldhess was a close friend of Jean Dubuffet and became interested in and influenced by Art Brut, particularly the work of Adolf Wolfli. Indeed, the strange writing in this piece and the patterns in the circular form at the center are very evocative of Wolfis's work.

As a young Schulthess changed the first part of his last name from "Schult" to "Schuld" (the German word for guilt) to emphasize his conviction that mankind was deeply burdened with guilt.
Deeply troubled by the Holocaust, Schuldhess converted to Judeism in 1968 and adopted Israeli citizenship in 1979. But disappointed by the Israeli occupation in Lebanon, he returned his passport to the Israeli Embassy in Bern in the early 1980s.

The Embassy of Switzerland recently organized an exhibit of Schuldhess's work at the National Art Gallery in Kuala Lumpur in 2004. The exhbition entitled "A mystical painter from Switzerland" looked at the strong influence of Hindu culture on the artist.

 

At his death in 1992, Schuldhess's ashes were released into the Ganges river.

Schuldhess works can be found in collections of the Kunstmuseum, Basel, the Geneva Museum of Art and Hitory, and hte Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris

 

Sources: Biographical Dictionary of Swiss Art / Website of the Swiss Embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

 

Dimensions: 25 X 31 inches (63 X 79 cm)

 

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