Fritz Schwegler is a German painter, graphic artist, sculptor and musician.

Born in the Swabia

Swabia

Swabia is a cultural, historic and linguistic region in southwestern Germany.-Geography:Like many cultural regions of Europe, Swabia's borders are not clearly defined...

n town of Breech near Göppingen

Göppingen

Göppingen is a town in southern Germany, part of the Stuttgart Region of Baden-Württemberg. It is the capital of the district Göppingen. It is situated at the bottom of the Hohenstaufen mountain, in the valley of the river Fils....

, Schwegler was first apprenticed as a joiner to his father. He then traveled through the whole of Europe for three years, where he visited 21 cities. As an artist, he first appeared as an iconoclastic, uncanny creator of image collages and spoken performances, entitled "Effeschiaden", "Effeschiadiana", "Effeschiaturen", "Moritafeln", "Zehnerschaften", "Viererreihen" and "Urnotizen", but later he also made sculptures out of wood and produced a series of 1000 bronze sculptures.

Schwegler exhibited at the documenta

Documenta

documenta is an exhibition of modern and contemporary art which takes place every five years in Kassel, Germany. It was founded by artist, teacher and curator Arnold Bode in 1955 as part of the Bundesgartenschau which took place in Kassel at that time...

s 5 and 8 in Kassel

Kassel

Kassel is a town located on the Fulda River in northern Hesse, Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Kassel Regierungsbezirk and the Kreis of the same name and has approximately 195,000 inhabitants.- History :...

.

In 2003, he was awarded the Bernhard Heiliger

Bernhard Heiliger

Bernhard Heiliger was a German artist. He was considered "West Germany's foremost sculptor", and his large public artworks are a prominent presence in many German cities, especially Berlin.-Biography:...

 Award of Sculpture for outstanding achievements in the field of sculpture. According to the jurors, Werner Spies

Werner Spies

Werner Spies is a German art historian, journalist and organizer of exhibitions. From 1997 to 2000, he was also a director of the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris.-Life and work:...

, Manfred Schneckenburger

Manfred Schneckenburger

Manfred Schneckenburger is a German art historian and curator of modern and contemporary art.Schneckenburger studied German literature, history, and the history of art. He first worked as a school teacher for some years and later as an art critic. In 1972, he organized the cultural program for the...

 and Dominic van den Boogerd, "at the end of the 20th century," Schwegler "created a register of plastic art without comparison."

For three decades, Schwegler was a professor at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

Kunstakademie Düsseldorf

The Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, formerly Staatliche Kunstakademie Düsseldorf, is the Arts Academy of the city of Düsseldorf. It is well known for having produced many famous artists, such as Joseph Beuys, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Thomas Demand, and Andreas Gursky...

, where he retired in 2001. Among his students were Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand, in full Thomas Cyrill Demand, is a German sculptor and photographer. He currently lives and works in Berlin and Los Angeles, and teaches at the University of Fine Arts, Hamburg.-Education:...

, Katharina Fritsch

Katharina Fritsch

Katharina Fritsch is a contemporary sculptor. She currently lives and works in Düsseldorf.-Life:...

, Martin Honert

Martin Honert

Martin Honert is a German artist based in Düsseldorf. He is known for making veristic sculptures of memories or images related to his childhood. Honert is represented by the Matthew Marks Gallery in New York.-Work:...

, Thomas Huber, and Thomas Schütte

Thomas Schütte

Thomas Schütte is a German contemporary artist. From 1973 to 1981 he studied art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alongside Katharina Fritsch under Gerhard Richter and Fritz Schwegler. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.-Work:In the early 1980s Schütte began a series of small sculptural works...

.

Select bibliography

• Wolfgang Becker, Astrid Brock, eds., Fritz Schwegler: Effeschiadiana, Effeschiaden, Effeschiaturen, Moritafeln, Zehnerschaften, Viererreihen und Urnotizen. Exhibition catalog. Stadt Aachen, Neue Galerie-Sammlung Ludwig, 19 Jan. - 10 February 1974.
• Helga Meister, "Fritz Schwegler", in Die Kunstszene Düsseldorf. Recklinghausen, 1979, pp. 182–184.
• Ferdinand Ullrich und Hans-Jürgen Schwalm, eds., Fritz Schwegler: die tägliche Jubelrolle; 365 Öffnungen; nach 25 Jahren und 29 von 1000 Notwandlungsstücken (hier zurückgemalt). Exhibition catalog. Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, 1999.