Klaus Boesch

Klaus Boesch
Born	(1963-10-23) October 23, 1963 Lustenau, Vorarlberg, Austria
Nationality	Austrian
Education	Self-taught
Occupation	Sand artist
Years active	1988 - present
Movement	Kinetic pop art, pop art

Klaus Boesch (German: Klaus Bösch, born October 23, 1963) is a sand artist from Vorarlberg in Austria. He is also known as KB The Sandman.

Early life and work

Klaus Boesch was born and raised in Lustenau, Vorarlberg, Austria, in 1963, the fourth of six children of Gebhard Boesch (1924-1989), who was a CEO of 11er and Destillerie Freihof companies, and who had been an artilleryman in the Second World War, and Charlotte Geuze (1928-2005) who was a homemaker.

After Boesch graduated BRG in Dornbirn, he was educated at Lustenau HAK/HAS Business School. From 1982 to 1987, he worked as an office worker at a glazier's workshop. During these years, his creative works were photography and drawing with pencil, ink, tempera and oil.

In October 1986, Werner Pieper, a media experimenter and a good friend of Klaus Boesch, brought him a sand picture from Germany. Boesch instantly recognized the endless creative possibilities of that technique. He immediately quit all other artwork to concentrate on sand pictures, and in his leisure time, he started creating his version called kinetic pop art.

By February 1988, he opened his studio for sand art called Studio Blue Green (German: Atelier Blau Grün). The first works were done in two sand colors: black and white, which was the standard at that time, white marble sand, which was brought from Carrara, Italy, and natural dark grey sand, which was taken from the Rhein River. To add color, the water was tinted. In the spring of 1988, the technique of making sand pictures was still primitive. Boesch searched for possible improvements and began to discover the secrets of sand pictures with the target, using sand with all colors of the rainbow.

By the summer of that year, he had taken the white marble and colored it with his own special technique, which was similar to traditional fabric dying. It was the first break through to colorful sand pictures. Soon, five different colors of sand became the standard of his secret sand blends and were the beginning of his collection named “Rainbow Vision”.

During this time, between searches, trials, mistakes, and improvements, Boesch concluded that in the process of using natural sand from deserts and beaches, crushed minerals, artificial colored sand and glitter powders, the most crucial thing is that each color of sand must have a different weight to be separated when floating. His technique improved gradually; nowadays, using sand, air, silicone, and water sealed between two panes of glass, Boesch creates dreamy miniature landscapes.

Regarding the water, he decided that it should be water with detergent to make the water surface smooth, plus a stabilizer to preserve and avoid algae growth. Gravity is the motor driving the flow. The medium in a sand picture is the water. In the water, air rises and sand falls down. When the picture is turned around, the bubbles are going up, slowing down the sand fall. Through its weight, the sand begins to drop between the air bubbles. It settles at the base, wherein, in the process of sedimentation, it separates into different weights, building structures appearing like dunes or mountains in a 3D-effect, which are affected by the shading of the various colors. Only a perfectly balanced sand blend creates a natural look. Due to the infinite possibilities of settling millions of sand grains spread on a random surface, the result is different every time the picture is turned.

Collaborations

In 2017, Boesch started collaborating with Leiji Matsumoto, a well-known Japanese manga artist who painted a background image for Boesch's sand art, which had a limited edition in 3 sizes and was named 'Galaxy Zero'. The background image of Galaxy Zero reminds of the famous futuristic space manga series Space Pirate Captain Harlock, created by Matsumoto in 1977.

The second collaboration was in 2019 with a talented Japanese digital artist, illustrator and photographer, Kagaya Yutaka. Kagaya chose a particular one of his photos, and Boesch created a sand blend with a frame to achieve a harmonic match to the background image.

As a result of this collaborative work, Boesch created three sand pictures.

In April 2019, Mangetsu (full moon); in June 2020, Inori (Amanogawa); and in August 2022, Izayoi, another full moon version. They all have limited editions and are available in Japan only.

Exhibitions

In 1993, Boesch exhibited at the opening of Galerie Boucherie, Uetikon on Zurich Lake in Switzerland.

In 2009, he attended the EU Commission for European Design in Japan, “Sensual perspectives” collective exhibition at Agora Galleryin New York (2011), National Pingtung Gallery, Taipei, Taiwan (2012), Installation ‘The Mind Spa’ at ArtPrize, Grand Rapids, Michigan (2013), Opening of the ‘KB Sand Art Gallery’ in the China Central Mall, Beijing (2014), Opening exhibition of K11 Art mall in K11 complex, Shanghai (2015).

Also, in 2015 and later in 2017, Boesch joined the collective exhibition at Beijing Design Week and Art, which was highlighted by the National Art Museum of China and the Huamao Shopping Centre, Beijing.

Gallery

• 
  Peace Dove, photography, 1982
• 
  The Eye, tempera painting, 1983
• 
  Eagle, hatching with ink, 1983
• 
  Rainbow Vision, The first collection with colored sands, 1989
• 
  Time Bandit, 2008
• 
  Exhibition in Agora Gallery, 2011, New York
• 
  Montana, 2014
• 
  Falling Sands, Window decoration, Louis Vuitton, 2017, France
• 
  Dunes of Schoorl, Art installation at Merlet Restaurant, 2018, The Netherlands
• 
  Birthstone Geode Turquoise, Japan, 2023
• 
  Mangetsu, April 2019
• 
  Inori, June 2020
• 
  Izayoi, August 2022