Schang Hutter

Jean Albert Hutter (11 August 1934 – 14 June 2021), known as Schang Hutter, was a Swiss figurative sculptor. His humanist work explored vulnerability, isolation and political violence through elongated, puppet-like figures. He received a prize at the Florence Biennale in 1975 and the Art Prize of the Canton of Solothurn in 1986. In 1998, the placement and removal of his sculpture Shoah outside the Federal Palace in Bern became the subject of a major public debate.

Biography Schang Hutter was born in Solothurn on 11 August 1934. His father, Jean Hutter, worked as both a stonemason and a sculptor. It often featured puppet-like figures whose silence and isolation represented responses to external pressures and events. His figures often had greatly elongated limbs, which gave them a frail and defenceless appearance. The sculpture drew attention to decisions by Swiss politicians against admitting Jewish refugees from Germany during the Second World War.

In 2025, Hutter’s son David, who administers his father’s estate, curated an exhibition in a former factory in Attiswil where Hutter had worked late in his career. The exhibition brought together sculptures, drawings, paintings and lithographs from the estate. Some works were transferred to a publicly accessible site in Langenthal, while others remained in Attiswil for storage or sale while a catalogue was being prepared.

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