biography
Helmut Federle, born 1944, is a swiss painter who studied from 1964 to 1969 at the Allgemeine Gewerbeschule Basel. This was followed by stays abroad in Tunisia and the USA as well as numerous trips to Japan, North Africa and the USA.
In more than 40 years Helmut Federle has developed an oeuvre that is characterized by a geometric as well as painterly pictorial language, which has a spirituality, symbolic nature, intellectuality and also a closeness to nature. In his works, constructive arrangements can be found next to painterly-spherical pictorial spaces that are bound to subjective sensations and thereby bear witness to a universal claim. Thus his painterly compositions are an expression of a strong content and elude a purely formal readability.
His works were shown at several institutions including Kunsthaus Bregenz, Kunstmuseum Basel, Albertina Contemporary (Vienna), Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (Vienna) and Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebaek).
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2019
19 E. 21 ST., 6 Large Paintings, Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel
2017
Abstract matter (Paintings and Ceramics), Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Lisbon
2016
Dark Night Three, M-ARCO, Marseille
2012
American Songline, Kunstmuseum Luzern, Luzern
Esencial, Fundacion Bancaja, Valencia
2011
Example: Switzerland. Unbounding and Crossing Over as Art, Kunstmuseum Lichtenstein, Vaduz
Helmut Federle, Albertina Contemporary, Vienna
2006
Singular Multiples: The Peter Blum Edition Archive 1980-1994, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston
Per Kirkeby – Reflexion, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
2005
Zeichnungen 1975 bis 1997 aus Schweizer Museumsbesitz, Rudolf Steiner Archiv/Haus Duldeck, Dornach
2004
Edelweiss, Colloquiums Friedrich Nietzsche – Rechtfertigung der Welt durch die Kunst, Nietzsche-Haus, Sils-Maria
2002
Helmut Federle, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Nantes
1999
Helmut Federle, Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz
Helmut Federle, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn
1998
Helmut Federle. Black Series I + II und Nachbarschaft der Farben, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau
Helmut Federle, Staatliche Kunsthalle, Karlsruhe
Helmut Federle, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Braunschweig
Helmut Federle, IVAM Centro Julio Gonzalez, Valencia
1997
Helmut Federle, XLVII Biennale Venice, Venice
1995
Helmut Federle, Kunstmuseum Bonn, Bonn
1993
Symbol – Sinn – Struktur. Helmut Federle. Zwei Räume und eine Intervention in der Sammlung des Museum Folkwang, Museum Folkwang, Essen
1992
Helmut Federle, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich
Helmut Federle, Moderna Museet, Stockholm
Helmut Federle, Museum Fridericianum, Kassel
1991
Helmut Federle, Wiener Secession, Vienna
1989
Helmut Federle. Bilder und Zeichnungen 1975-1988, Museum Haus Lange, Krefeld
Helmut Federle, Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Bielefeld
Helmut Federle, Kunstverein Hamburg, Hamburg
Helmut Federle. Peintures, dessins, Musée de Grenoble, France
1987
HF, Mary Boone Gallery and Barbara Gladstone Gallery, New York
1985
Helmut Federle. Bilder, Zeichnungen, Museum of Contemporary Art, Basel
Helmut Federle, Gemeentemuseum, The Hague
Helmut Federle, Association pour l’art contemporain, Nevers
1984
Helmut Federle. Zeichnungen/Drawings 1975-1984, The Living Art Museum, Reykjavik
1983
Helmut Federle. Peinture 1979 à 1983 – Regard sur le présent 3, Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
1979
Helmut M. Federle. Bilder 1977-1978, Kunsthalle Basel, Basel
1976
Helmut M. Federle, Museum der Stadt Solothurn, Solothurn