Hermann Obrist
Encyclopedia
Hermann Obrist in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
– 26 February 1927, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
) was a German sculptor
Sculpture
Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...
of the Jugendstil (Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau
Art Nouveau is an international philosophy and style of art, architecture and applied art—especially the decorative arts—that were most popular during 1890–1910. The name "Art Nouveau" is French for "new art"...
) movement. He studied Botany and History in his youth whose influence one can perceive in his later work in the field of applied arts. As a teacher, Hermann Obrist exerted a seminal influence on the rise and subsequent development of Jugendstil in Germany. In 1902 Hermann Obrist and Wilhelm von Debschitz jointly founded a school for design in Munich, where his students included Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack
Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack
Ludwig Hirschfeld Mack was a German/Australian artist.His formative education was 1912-1914 at Debschitz art school in Munich, and 1922 at the Bauhaus-University Weimar where following Kurt Schwerdtfeger he further developed "Farblichtmusiken" , a light and colour modulator...
, who later taught at the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
Obrist commissioned his friend August Endell
August Endell
August Endell was a German Jugendstil architect.Endell is noted for many designs, including the Atelier Elvira in München by commission of his friend Hermann Obrist, built in 1897 and destroyed in 1944. It had an imaginative motif evocative of a breaking wave or a dragon that dominated the facade...
to design his studio in Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, built in 1897 and destroyed in 1944.
Obrist's most famous and influential work was the design for an 1892 embroidered wall hanging called "Cyclamen". It featured a series of elegant, looping curves, described as "whiplash curves", or Peitschenhieb in German, and became a seminal work of the Art Nouveau movement.