Rosmarie Vogt (*1939), born in Schaffhausen, is a renowned Swiss object artist and sculptor. After completing various craft-related internships, including at Wohnhilfe Zürich, and beginning an apprenticeship as an upholsterer in Basel, she attends the foundation course at the School of Applied Arts in Zurich. It is here that her creative potential is recognised and her intellectual curiosity awakened.

She subsequently enrols in Willy Guhl’s specialist class in interior design in Zurich, where she also meets her future husband, Klaus Vogt. Looking back, she describes herself as remaining “undirected” during her studies. After graduating, she works briefly for the Viennese designer Carl Auböck. Vienna also opens her eyes to the art of the Secession, to Otto Wagner and Adolf Loos, and to the Wiener Werkstätte. Returning to Switzerland, she and her husband Klaus Vogt first move to Ticino and later to Wohlen in the Canton of Aargau. Although raising their three sons would, by traditional expectations, have been considered a full-time occupation, Rosmarie Vogt feels a strong need to pursue her own creative path. She initially designs toys, but this does not satisfy her in the long term. By attending evening courses in experimental design at the F+F School, she embarks on her career as an artist. Her first group exhibition, Kunst auf dem Wasser (Art on the Water), held in Zug in 1979, marks the beginning of a remarkable exhibition history spanning more than 50 exhibitions.

Rosmarie Vogt’s installations and sculptural works are always conceived in relation to their spatial and site-specific contexts, exploring themes of becoming, protection and enclosure. An affinity with architecture and an interest in imagining alternative forms of living remain present throughout her work. Later, in her teaching role in perception and representation at the Höhere Lehranstalt in Muttenz, fostering students’ individual forms of creative expression is particularly important to her. By observing and recognising spatial and other relationships, students are encouraged to develop new ways of thinking, regardless of the medium they choose.

Artist biography of Rosmarie Vogt on SIKART.

Alongside site-specific installations, often created in natural settings, Rosmarie Vogt also produces art-in-architecture projects. With her teaching position at the Höhere Technische Lehranstalt in Muttenz, her interest increasingly shifts towards an architectural approach. She explores built, freestanding and curved walls, working with a wide variety of materials. Each material demands a different approach to building in three dimensions. The knowledge gained through this experimental process is physically tangible in the works that Rosmarie Vogt has entrusted to the ai-s as part of her archive.

Rosmarie Vogt also plays an active role in the artistic design of the interiors created by Verena Huber for ships on Lake Constance between 1988 and 1992.

A large collection of sketchbooks and documents provides a further tangible record of her experience and creative process, which Rosmarie Vogt has made accessible to the public by entrusting her archive to the ai-s.