Kubach-Wilmsen
The artist duo Kubach-Wilmsen, consisting of Anna Kubach-Wilmsen, born in 1937, and Wolfgang Kubach, born in 1936, are known for their stone sculptures, in particular their stone books.
Anna Kubach-Wilmsen and Wolfgang Wilmsen have been working together as stone sculptors since 1968. As early as 1976, they discovered the stone book as their general theme. Using different stones from all over the world, they initially created the book in all sizes, types and states; the book scroll, the fallen book "Icarus", the book stacked up to form a book tower and finally the book ruin. But the artist duo's work is also about the content of the book, the word, whether written or printed, followed by the other carriers of the word: the newspaper, the single sheet, the blackboard, the "Support des Rèves", a collapsed pile of paper, the letter and finally the monitor, which, like all the aforementioned media, can also carry the image in addition to the word.
The artist duo creates sculptures of various sizes in Switzerland and abroad and takes part in international stone sculpture symposia. Their works have been shown internationally in numerous exhibitions from Japan to the USA.
In 1998, the artist couple founded the Fondation Kubach-Wilmsen as a non-profit foundation to create a stone sculpture museum. They made around 15,000 square meters of land in Bad Münster am Stein available for this purpose. 65 of their stone sculptures form the cornerstone of the museum project. In 2010, the world-famous architect Tadao Ando from Osaka was recruited for the stone sculpture museum. The building, which is regarded as the only contemporary stone sculpture museum in the world, opens in the same year.
Wolfgang Kubach dies in 2007, Anna Kubach-Wilmsen in 2021.