Exhibitions
Catalogues
Biography

Hans Jörg Glattfelder was born 1939 in Zurich.
He started to study at the local university (law, history of art, archaeology), but in 1961 he got involved in a project for social development in Sicily. After short studies at the “Academia” in Rome in 1963 he settled in Florence. In its beginnings his painting was influenced by the strict geometric rules of the (Zurich) “concrete art” to which he gave a quite personal interpretation in the light of early Renaissance architecture.
1966 he had his first one-man exhibit in Milano, in the gallery “numero” of Fiamma Vigo. In Florence he published the art-review “comunicazione” with the poet Claudio Popovich. He published a pamphlet claiming anonymous, industrial manufacturing of art for everybody; and he demonstrated his theory by mass-producing plastic pyramid elements which he assembled in coloured reliefs. With such pyramid reliefs he participated successfully in many group exhibits of the European constructivists.
1970 he moved to Milano. In the new surrounding he frequented the artists Mario Ballocco, Antonio Calderara, Gianni Colombo and Luigi Veronesi. Taking a hint from the specialist in cybernetics Silvio Ceccato, Glattfelder got acquainted with recent evolution in geometry and contemporary spatial representation. As a result of these studies in 1977 he started a series of works which he called “non-euclidean metaphors”.
1977 the Swiss painter R. P. Lohse presented him to the philosopher H. H. Holz who reminded him the social implications of constructivist art: this was the beginning of a still lasting dialog between the two men. H. H. Holz has dedicated several exhaustive studies to the work of Glattfelder.
The artists own reflections focussed on the possible relation between art and scientific culture. In a pamphlet against the cult of irrationalism in art he clarified his own position as “meta-rationalism”. By this term he understands a plastic language in which rationality is both: questioned and focussed as central theme. Glattfelder states, that a proficient dialogue between science and art starts with the mutual discussion and clarification of the methods.
1987 he was honoured in Zurich with the “Camille-Graeser- Price” on suggestion of the poet Eugen Gomringer and the art critic Willy Rotzler. In the following year he changed his residence from Milano to the lake Orta, attracted there by the very particular light which Antonio Calderara had so often described to him in Milano. Glattfelders pictorial language acquainted more simplicity: he created the series of the “synthetic reliefs”.
1990 he lived in New York City on a fellowship granted by Zurich. As the most vivid memory of this year he remembers the frequent visits in Leon Polk Smiths studio with whom he kept in touch also after his return to Europe.
In 1992 the Josef Albers Museum organized a retrospective exhibition of his work.
1998 he moved to Paris where he still lives.
Exhibitions
Galerie Schlégl, Zurigo
2004
Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg
2003
Galerie Latzer, Kreuzlingen
2002
Galerie am See, Zug
2001
Galerie Schlégl, Zürich
2000
Galerie Schoeller, Düsseldorf
Atelier Fanal, Basel
Galerie St. Johann, Saarbrücken
Galerie Eva Mack, Stuttgart
1999
Museum für konkrete Kunst, Ingolstadt
Galerie am See, Zug
1998
Fondation Saner, Studen
Villa Turque, La Chaux-de-Fonds
1997
Galerie Schlégl, Zürich (mit Hans Hinterreiter)
1996
Galerie am See, Zug
1995
Iynedjian art, Lausanne
Galerie Schlégl, Zürich
1994
Galerie Schoeller, Düsseldorf
Galerie Schlégl, Zürich
1993
Museum moderner Kunst, Otterndorf
Galerie am See, Zug
Symposium „Raum-Klang-Bild“, Gmunden
1992
Josef Albers-Museum, Bottrop
1991
Galerie am See, Zug
Orangerie Draenert, Immenstaad a/ Bod.
1990
Galerie im Trudelhaus, Baden CH (mit Leon Polk Smith)
Galerie Teufel, Köln
1989
Galerie Schoeller, Düsseldorf (mit Torsten Ridell)
1988
Galerie Hoffmann, Friedberg
1987
Galerie Teufel, Köln
Stiftung für konkrete undkonstruktive Kunst, Zürich
Galerie Iynedjian, Lausanne
1986
Galleria il Salotto, Como
Studio Dabbeni, Lugano
Studio F22, Palazzolo sull’Oglio
1985
Galerie konstruktiv tendens, Stockholm
1984
Galerie Schoeller, Düsseldorf (mit Imre Koscis)
1983
Galerie Wengihof, Zürich
Galerie Quartett, Hannover
1982
Studio 8 + 1, Venezia – Mestre
Galerie konstruktiv tendens, Stockholm
Studio F22, Palazzolo sull’Oglio
Galerie am Schlosswall, Osnabrück
1980
Galleria Adelphi, Padova
Galleria Arte Struktura, Milano
1979
Galleria Sincron, Brescia
1977
Galerie Seestrasse, Rapperswil
Galerie Latzer, Kreuzungen
1976
Galeria Litoarte, Bergamo
1975
Galerie Gimpel & Hanover, Zürich
Galerie Seestrasse, Rapperswil
1974
Galleria la Piramide, Firenze
Galleria Adelphi, Padova
Galleria Sincron, Brescia
Studio A, Parma
1973
Galleria Vismara, Milano
Studio F22, Palazzolo sull’Oglio
1972
Galleria Adelphi, Padova
Studio t-zero, Torino
Galerie Gimpel & Hanover, Zürich
Galerie Sybille Schmidt, Detmold
1971
Galleria la Polena, Genova
Galleria dei Mille, Bergamo
Visual studio – Biffi in Galleria, Milano
1970
Galerie Mutzenbach, Dortmund
Galerie Bischofberger, Zürich
Galerie Daedalus , Berlin
White Gallery, Lutry
CIPS Palazzo Strozzi, Firenze
1969
Galleria Sincron, Brescia
Galerie Aurora, Genève
Galerie 58, Rapperswil
Galerie Fürneisen – Dröscher, Hamburg
1968
Goethe Institut, Torino
Galleria la Polena, Genova
Galleria il Parametro, Milano
1967
Galeria Dom Omladine, Beograd
bbbb(mit Lia Drei und Francesco Guerrieri)
Galerie Friedrich Tschanz, Solothurn (mit Jakob Bill)
1966
Galleria Numero, Milano