Overview

For sculptors Alfred Gruber (1931-1972) and Jacqueline Stieger (b.1936), their meeting in 1962 marked the start of a bountiful partnership - their artistic chemistry conjuring works that exploited the transformative qualities of common and precious metals. Chronicling their intertwined stories, which saw Gruber reach his pinnacle as a solo artist and Stieger establish innovative sculptural techniques that informed her onward career, their individual achievements are also given due focus in this ambitious publication. Tracing each artist’s early history, their meeting in Switzerland and their eventual move to Yorkshire, the book includes assessment of their work with pioneers of modern church architecture in both Switzerland and the UK, their contribution to the development of art jewellery from the mid-1960s, the debt owed by European artistic friends and collaborators – including David Weiss, later of Fischli and Weiss – who worked for both Gruber and Stieger in the 1960s, and the development of Stieger's artistic language after Gruber's untimely death. Drawing on the Gruber Stieger art collection and supporting archive, together with numerous interviews conducted with Jacqueline Stieger, this book sheds much-needed light on the pair’s unique oeuvre, both as a couple and as individuals.

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9781848225855

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Reviews

'A lovely and fascinating book about two sculptors whose wide ranging, and much too little known, work is a sheer delight.' - Sir Mark Jones, Former Director of the V&A Museum 'Both a love story and an investigation into how two sculptors employed a wide range of approaches, materials and scales to negotiate a path between the absract and the figurative, this fascinating book takes the reader on a journey from the Post-Second World War era to our own day.' - Philip Attwood, Department of Coins and Medals, British Museum 'A fascinating insight into the lives of Alfred Gruber and Jacqueline Stieger, intertwined, for ten intense years, in mutual love and focus on making innovative sculpture. Gruber's death left Stieger a legacy of technical knowledge enabling her own unique expressive power to be realised in large, and small scale, works of art.' - Rosemary Ransome Wallis, Art Director and Curator (1972-2017), The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths

Author Information

After many years working as curator in museums and galleries, Gerardine Mulcahy-Parker is now a freelance curator, heritage consultant and founder of 'The Exhibitours' touring exhibition company. She has been researching the work of Alfred Gruber and Jacqueline Stieger for a number of years.

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