about – Sylvia Agnes Meister

"You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have."
Maya Angelou (1928 - 20214), American writer and civil rights activist

Sylvia Agnes Meister was born and raised in 1944 in Locarno, in the Italian part of Switzerland. Today she lives and works in Zurich and Kunming, China.

Family and the associated life paths and traditions had a formative influence on the artist.
Her grandfather, Otto Meister (1873-1937), came from a respected Zurich family of goldsmiths. He was an engineer and lived and worked for a long time in Japan and China. Her father, Alfred Jutaro Meister (1913-1987), had a Japanese mother and was an architect.

So, there is a lot to be found in the artist's career that can be attributed to her family roots: training as a goldsmith at the School of Design, Zurich, studying philosophy at the University of Lucerne, working in the field of industrial design for several years, all this coupled with an extremely good understanding of technical contexts, all of which is evident in her work.

Much of this text comes from conversations with the artist. Among other things, the statement that the creation of art is central, a necessity for her and truly fulfills her.
Johannes Itten was the director of the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts from December 1938 to April 1954. Although she attended this school much later for five years for her training as goldsmith, the ideas and theories of Johannes Itten caught her attention early on. During her time at the Zurich School of Arts and Crafts, some of the Zurich Concrete artists could often be encountered there, such as Richard Paul Lohse or Verena Loewensberg. This was inspiring for Sylvia Agnes Meister. Similar to Loewensberg, her work is not based on mathematical theories and is also influenced by Japanese asceticism and philosophy. (The core of the "Zurich Concretes" included Max Bill, Camille Graeser, Verena Loewensberg and Richard Paul Lohse.)

The jewellery and objects created during the artist's training as goldsmith had a formal language, to a certain extent also inspired by Concrete Art. Not surprisingly, she has used gold and silver in various forms in her art right from the beginning of her career.

During her philosophy studies in Lucerne in the 1980s, Sylvia Agnes Meister was already active as an artist and was able to show works in various exhibitions. As a result, early works of hers ended up in private collections and – partly through the mediation of the then city architect Manuel Pauli – also in the collection of the city of Lucerne.

During this time, she met the glass artist Roberto Niederer and worked closely with him for four years in the field of industrial design. She designed glass creations that are still among the classics of the Hergiswil glassworks today, some of which are still in production.
Among others a large square plate "Carré".
(The Hergiswil glassworks were founded in 1817 and saved from ruin by Roberto Niederer in the 1970s. Still owned by the Niederer family, glass creations have been created on Lake Lucerne for over 200 years.)

How can the work of Sylvia Agnes Meister be characterized?

When questioned in this context, and as can also be seen from her work, Sylvia Agnes Meister confirmed having an affinity for Minimal Art, with influences from Concrete Art as mentioned above, but without wanting to get involved in strict geometric specifications or reducing herself to mathematical theories.

The basic features of minimalism are the striving for objectivity, schematic clarity and logic. Typical is the reduction to simple and clear, mostly geometric basic structures. Colors, shapes, monochrome and geometric surfaces characterize the works.
In 20th-century architecture and landscape architecture, Minimal Art was one of the most important sources of inspiration, whose influence is still felt today and fundamentally changed the way we view and interpret art.

Sylvia Agnes Meister repeatedly deals intensively with shapes, surfaces, colors and the variations associated with them. This creative path, which combines serial work with her search for an end result she is aiming for, has a special meditative quality that is transported by the works. Possibly also influenced by her Japanese roots.
In many of Japan's art forms, one can find the striving for harmony between linear structure, rhythm and color, for balance between space and emptiness.

The artist uses almost exclusively oil paint and – as already mentioned – gold and silver paints and pigments. These two precious metals have accompanied her since her training as goldsmith, which is also noticeable in her skillful handling of them. She uses them not only because of their beauty and intrinsic value, but also because of their symbolic qualities and connotations, e.g. "appreciation, elevation, enhancement, regality", in a large scope of different contexts, as has been the case ever since precious metals were discovered.
Gold, for example, is also used in medicine due to its healing properties.
Among other things, silver has the highest electrical and thermal conductivity of all metals. It also changes color over time – something that is deliberately applied and taken into account for by Sylvia Agnes Meister (as well as many other artists before her, such as for example Walter de Maria in his work "Silver Portrait of Dorian Gray")

It is not surprising that Sylvia Agnes Meister follows and appreciates the work of the Japanese architect Tadao Andō, which is characterized by a consistent minimalism and combines influences from the Japanese tradition with those of modernism. Her works often also have architectural features.

Sylvias Agnes Meister's experience from her work in industrial design, her extensive technical understanding as well as her reference to Minimal Art – which often allows for the use of industrial production methods as well as the use of finished products – offer an ideal basis for a cooperation with companies interested in widening their scope of works designed by artists.

The connection between brands and art in general has a great tradition, which is cultivated today more than ever by many well-known brands.
Branded products thus also become a cultural asset and take on a meaning that goes beyond their actual function.

Philosophical aspects such as past, present and future, consciousness and subconscious are of particular interest to the artist and are processed by her in her work.
All in all, a variety of themes that can be found in the harmoniously reduced works of Sylvia Agnes Meister with colors, surfaces, space, emptiness, austerity and freedom, and yet leave room for the viewer's own interpretations.

Christina Enderli-Fässler, May 2025
Art and Cultural Communication, Ebmatingen

Great understanding comes with great love.
Wisdom from Zen Buddhism