A visit of Christian Herdeg's artist workshop

Introduction

On saturday, the 24th of May we had the opportunity to visit the workshop of Christian Herdeg. The visit was organised by the "vfo". See its website www.vfo.ch for more in-depth information.

As a member of the "vfo" we get to see artist's workshop around twice a year. Usually on a saturday morning they are a splendid start into the weekend. So was this visit.

Christian Herdeg, born 1942 is a swiss light artist working in Zürich. See http://www.christianherdeg.com/index.htm for more information about the artist and his work.

The visit startet at the front door (obviously):

Please don't close until 2pm.

Looks to me like the writing of someone with a sense of proportions and also a will to be systematic and correct.

The Workshop

M. Herdeg greeted us in his Workshop and showed us around while talking about his work and his evolution.

His Workshop

A detail of one of its workplaces

Chr. Herdeg, reflecting himself

The attentive audience, and a piece of his work in the foreground

In action, talking about his work.

How did it start?

At the age of 9 he was doing the light for a theater from his brother. He bought the lamps at the EPA (a discounter). He got fascineated by the light. His carreer brought him from photography and film to being a lighting technician. On his first visit to the United States he got in contact with neon tubes used for advertisments. That was the starting point to him being a light artist. Back to Switzerland he started doing works with the new material and it immediately went well. Max Bill bought one of his sculptures as did the city of Zürich.

Chr. Herdeg in front of one of his works

He started with plenty of colors and reduced it more and more. In 1977 his work was reduced to a right angle and black light. He needed a break. Another visit to the states got him to use colors again.

He never saw himself being part of the "Zurich Concretes": http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Z%C3%BCrcher_Schule_der_Konkreten (Article in german only).

Detail of his work.

How did he get the colors?

In 1974 he wanted to use more and other colors that the existing ones. He found a company in Heidelberg and together they developed more than 300 colors. He still uses these colors.