09/08/2026
H.A. Sigg, In the Middle Realm VII, 1995, Acrylic on Canvas, 78” x 46”, $40,000
Sigg's development of aerial landscape imagery began in 1968 with travel to Southeast Asia as an "artist in residence in the sky" for Swissair, which had previously purchased several of his paintings. From the singular vantage point of the cockpit, Sigg made sketches from which he developed the abstractions of terraced fields and rivers characteristic of his work from the 1970's. On the ground, the artist visited temple sites such as Angkor Wat in Cambodia and made drawings of the sculpture; he also became a passionate collector of Southeast Asia and Khmer sculpture. As a result of his travels, which also included India and Thailand, Sigg began to explore interior architectural space as well as the infinite space of the aerial landscape in his new paintings. Other study trips to Italy, Greece, the Middle East, Nepal, China, and to Guatemala, Mexico and the American West provided inspiration. Since his Southeast Asia trip, the river has become increasingly abstract and distilled, like shorthand or calligraphy. For Sigg, the river is a "mysterious force" with a spirit of its own. In this series, the river becomes a metaphor for passage through life and the human search for the inner self and enlightenment. In articulating his river imagery, the artist discovered Hermann Hesse's novel Siddhartha which became an important influence. Throughout the novel. Siddhartha encounters the river as a changing yet constant, regenerating force, something to listen to and learn from, like life itself.
Visit our gallery website and Artsy to check out the Gallery Artists Part XXIII virtual exhibition! ✨
https://www.walterwickisergallery.com/gapxxiii-ve
https://www.artsy.net/show/walter-wickiser-gallery-gallery-artists-annual-exhibition-part-xxiii
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