Paul Suter one of the most distinguished Swiss iron sculptors was one of the first members of sculpture network and one of the most renowned.
From 1951 onwards Paul Suter has been working as an independent artist in Basel, the Swiss canton Jura and in Umbria. He was educated at the art school Basel and started with bronze and plumb affusions. In 1958 he started working with his favourite material metal which he used to shape shell shaped sculptures. Soon enough his pieces become more transparent and reveal their technical assembly.
He created pieces for the open space in Basel. When he established a studio in the Swiss canton of Jura he was able to construct even larger sculptures like the three large spieces at the Heuwaageviadukt in Basel 1971-74. There he created his later style of independent architectural room elements. He created his own style which is based on Julio Gonzalez principle of ?drawing in space?, which became famous in Switzerland and across Europe.
Apart from exhibitions all over Europe he created several massive sculptures in Germany and Switzerland. Starting in 1980 his sculptures become more detailed: some of them just attached to the ground at three points. He reduced the shape of his elements on straight lines and arcs. For the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona he designed his largest sculpture with a height of 14 m. An extensive open air retro perspective follows in Girona (E) at the beginning of the new millennium. During that time he sticks to sculptures which include straight lines only. The reduction reached it's peak. Parallel to this he starts doing bronze again (cire-perdue). The shapes of these sculptures remember of his iron sculptures.
Paul Suter wasn't a man of many words, personal contact was more his thing. Members who attended the Sculpture Symposium in 2007 where able to experience this themselves, when we visited his large sculpture ?Olympia? and on several other occasions.
He unexpectedly died on 23. September 2009 in his beloved Italy.
