Swiss sculptor, draughtsman and engraver Robert Müller was born in Zurich in 1920. After beginning his studies at a business school, he opted for artistic training and joined the studio of Otto Bänninger and Germaine Richier, who were living in Switzerland at the time. Robert Müller's early work was deeply influenced by the style of Germaine Richier (1902-1959). From 1947 onwards, the artist...

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  Biography of Robert Müller

  Swiss sculptor, draughtsman and engraver Robert Müller was born in Zurich in 1920. After beginning his studies at a business school, he opted for artistic training and joined the studio of Otto Bänninger and Germaine Richier, who were living in Switzerland at the time. Robert Müller's early work was deeply influenced by the style of Germaine Richier (1902-1959). 
  From 1947 onwards, the artist spent two years in Genoa, where he tried to break away from the influence of his famous teacher with figurative sculptures and plaster and bronze works.
  In 1949, Robert Müller moved with his family first to Paris, then to Villiers-le-Bel, where he lived and worked until his death. Robert Müller trained with one of the capital's last blacksmiths. He learned to bend and curve on the anvil. But in a generation won over by speed, he cut corners by working with scraps of metal that simply had to be fitted and welded together. He is considered the pioneer of iron sculpture in the 1950s and 1960s. "Robert Müller is credited with surpassing his master [Germaine Richier] by pushing expressive metamorphosis beyond the limits of figurative art," writes art critic Paul-André Jaccard.
  His international career took off fairly quickly,, with his first exhibition in Paris in 1954. His Parisian works are characterized by abstraction, yet contain references to the human body. They are characterized by an erotic tension born of the simultaneous attraction and defense of the various elements. He was immediately in great demand, and major museums, notably in the USA, bought pieces from him. At the time, he was commercially represented by a gallery as important as Jeanne Bucher's. Between 1956 and 1960, he took part in the most important international biennales, such as those in Venice and São Paulo, and Documenta in Kassel (1959). Alongside Swiss sculptors Bernhard Luginbühl and Jean Tinguely, he is considered one of the creators of modern iron sculpture.In the 1960s, Robert Müller was no longer successful. In the 1970s, his health began to fail, and he devoted most of his time to engraving and drawing. It was at this point that the artist's "second period" came into being.79, organized a retrospective of Robert Müller's Drawings 1937-1978 at the Musée Rath in 1979. In 1982, the Cabinet des estampes de Genève presented the first overview of his prints, followed in 1996-1997 by his Estampes 1983-1996, both exhibitions accompanied by a catalog raisonné of the printed work, compiled by Rainer Michael Mason.Robert Müller died in Villiers-le-Bel in 2003.
  
  

  

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