Hermann Scherer

Previously relatively unknown in Germany, Hermann Scherer has long been recognized in Switzerland as a significant expressionist of the second generation. Sculptor, painter, and graphic artist Scherer was also a co-founder of the Rot-Blau group of artists.

Biography of Hermann Scherer

Hermann Scherer was born in Rümmingen, Baden-Württemberg, in 1893. After completing school in 1907, he apprenticed as a stonemason at the Schwab workshop in Lörrach. From 1910 to 1919, he worked with various Basel sculptors, including Carl Gutknecht, Otto Roos, and Carl Burckhardt. By working as a laborer and assistant for Roos, he managed to afford a small workshop.

In 1919, Scherer embraced a contemporary approach to art and painting, destroying many of his earlier works. Influenced by former Brücke artist Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and especially Ernst Ludwig Kirchner whom he visited several times in Davos, Scherer began working with wood for the first time.

The new material marked a stylistic shift. Scherer used bold, forceful strokes to carve out stark visual worlds. His life's themes — love and compulsion, togetherness and solitude, angst and excess —  were intensely expressed in his woodcuts. Among his notable works from 1924/25 are impressive portfolios based on Fyodor Dostoyevsky's Crime and Punishment and Alexander Blok's revolutionary poem The Twelve. Until his early death in 1927, the artist created approximately 25 sculptures and over 100 woodcuts.

In 1924, Scherer had the opportunity to participate in an exhibition of new German art in Stuttgart, showcasing three of his wood sculptures. The artist fell seriously ill in the autumn of 1926 and passed away in Basel on May 13, 1927. That year, he was honored with an exhibition at the Kunsthalle Basel, showcasing over 200 of his works. 

Founding of Rot-Blau: Hermann Scherer and the Formation of the Artist Group

In 1924, Hermann Scherer co-founded the artist group Rot-Blau with Albert Müller and Paul Camenisch, also the group was joined by Werner Neuhaus.

The Rot-Blau group made a significant impact when they first exhibited their work at the Basler Kunstverein in 1925, despite Albert Müller having already left the group. They had also shown their work at the Kunsthaus Zürich that year, where some pieces were deemed offensive and rejected in both Basel and Zürich.

Although Hermann Scherer and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner had a falling out in 1925, their shared passion for Expressionism kept them connected. Kirchner supported the Rot-Blau group by promoting them at the International Art Exhibition in Dresden in 1926.