Re Bao IX 25

Light and colour play a central role in Paul Schwer’s artistic work. He often works with lamps, glass, transparent plastic sheets and foils. He paints, bends, splinters and reassembles his materials, wraps them around stands and lets the light shine through them, often giving his sculptures and installations an animate quality. Veiling and wrapping occur frequently in his work: the plexiglass elements coil around each other as if warped by the wind, overlay each other, and subtly play with transparency, colour mixes, reflections and incident light. First created during a stay in Shanghai, the “Bao/Baozi” series, to which “Re Bao VIII” and “Re Bao IX” also belong, is typical. In Chinese “bao” can be used as a verb or noun, and means wrapping, enveloping, bag or parcel. So the sculptures‘ titles literally describe their construction: plexiglass sheets, onto which colourful silkscreens have been printed, are heated and wrapped around a metal frame.
Paul Schwer studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Erwin Heerich in the 1980’s, while still practising as a child and adolescent psychiatrist. He produced numerous installations for the public space and for international exhibitions.