In the 1950s a large number of internationally renowned artists created pictures made of
ceramic. In 1956 in close collaboration with the artist and ceramicist Richard Bampi Julius
Bissier developed a ceramic work for the University of Freiburg. The abstract composition on a
wall in the city center measures over 19.5 long by 2.6 meters high. Its restoration and
relaunch is occasion to examine more closely the story of its genesis. The distinctiveness of
the artwork becomes clear against a backdrop of the cultural politics oriented on France in
Freiburg after 1945. Unexpected parallels in contemporaneous ceramic murals by Fernand Léger
Joan Miró and Victor Vasarely are revealed and make the Freiburg ceramic picture a unique work
in the post-war art of Germany.
