Kurt Oscar Weber

Weber died in Basel, Switzerland on 29 October 2011. At the time of his death, he had perfected a previously undeveloped painting technique and process which allowed brilliant inks and pigment to adhere to translucent vellum. His last collective series encompassed the perfecting of this technique, which he referred to as Clusters. Following his death, an exhibition of a retrospective collection of Weber's life and work from 1960 through 2009 was presented at the Sammlung Gallerie S/Z in Zurich, running from June through August 2012. Another retrospective presentation of his work, entitled Remember, was presented in 2012 at the Galerie Lilian Andrée, Riehen, in the canton of Basel-Stadt in Switzerland.

Later on, he would commute back and forth between America and Europe, which continued until the 1990s when he temporarily took up residence in Basel. Following the separation from his second wife, he switched his primary residence back to San Francisco. While maintaining a studio in California, he continued to travel to Paris and Switzerland on a regular basis. It wasn't until 2009, that Weber exhibited his art in his native city of Zurich for the first time.

In 1964, with the encouragement of Giacometti, Weber traveled to New York, where the avant garde movement had been developing and coming to prominence on a global scale. While intrigued by the creative expression of the abstract painters he encountered in New York, he was drawn to the historic monuments of the Mayas and the Aztecs and began traveling to Mexico regularly. It was this combination of experiences - the breadth and spatiality of American abstract painting and Mexico's luminous colors that moved Weber to a radical new start.

Weber's professional training was varied and included studying with world-renowned artists throughout Europe. He attended the Kunstgewerbeschule (School of Applied Arts) in Vienna, Switzerland, from 1955 through 1958. The school was a highly progressive school that offered an education that focused primarily on architecture, furniture, crafts, and modern design. While Vienna's Academy of Fine Art was considered more prestigious and traditional, the education at Kunstgewerbeschule was dominated by instructors of the Vienna Secession.

Kurt Oscar Weber (26 July 1938 – 29 October 2011) was a Swiss-American fine artist, primarily working in sculpture and painting. He worked in several genres of art including German Expressionism, Abstract Expressionism, Color fielding, and Figuration. He is known for his international solo and group exhibitions primarily presented in the US, France, Switzerland, Austria, and Germany. He maintained studios in Emeryville, California and in Uerikon near Lake Zurich for over 30 years.

Kurt O. Weber was born on 26 July 1938 in Zurich, Switzerland. Weber traveled internationally throughout his life. In 1968, he traveled to the US and with his wife, artist Colette Leitner, (AKA Lindner) began a 13-year adventure exploring the country. In 1970, he became a US citizen, while simultaneously maintaining his Swiss citizenship. During this period, he continued his artwork, which primarily included sketching and drafting ideas. Following their exploration across the US, which ended in 1981, Weber divorced and moved to the western US. Arriving in California, Weber set up a studio in Emeryville, located in the San Francisco Bay area. It was here that he created his first large-format images.