PaulTalman
Biography
Paul Talman was a Swiss painter, sculptor, and designer linked to kinetic art. Trained as a lithographer in Bern, he soon became interested in geometric-abstract painting, approaching the circle of artists around the concrete art magazine Spirale, edited by Marcel Wyss, Dieter Roth, and Eugen Gromringer. After moving to Basel in 1956, Talman became further interested in concrete art, especially in design and typography. From 1959 to 1972, he was Art Director of the famous GGK advertising agency of Karl Gerstner, Markus Kutter, and Paul Gredinger. Beginning in the 1960s, Talman began producing a series of kinetic objects called Kugelbilder (Ball Pictures) which brought him worldwide attention. These sculptural compositions of twotone balls, embedded and repurposed in different color and material combinations, are designed to be rotated by the viewer in all directions. In 1961 he exhibited at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam. During the following years, he traveled to the United States, attending the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and collaborating as a furniture designer for KNOLL International, New York. Returning to Europe, he approached the Groupe de Recherche d’Art Visuel (GRAV) in Paris, collaborating with Daniel Spoerri and Jean Tinguely and eventually participating in the fourth documenta exhibition in 1968. In 1973, he relocated to Ueberstorf Castle in the canton of Fribourg, continuing to work primarily on abstract black-andwhite paintings and series of geometric silkscreens. Talman’s work as a product designer is reflected in the production of calendars, clock radios, and especially lamps based on his Kugelbilder, which are now regarded as exceptional design objects.
