MODERN Art Oxford will be the first public gallery in the UK to host an exhibition by Swiss sculptor Hans Josephsohn.

Josephsohn, who died last year, used bronze to cast simplistic forms of the human figure, and from tomorrow the Pembroke Street gallery will be presenting some of the work he carried out during the last 25 years of his life.

Ulrich Meinherz, who works at the foundry where Josephsohn produced his work, was in Oxford yesterday for the installation of the exhibition.

He said: “The ‘semi-figures’ you see in the Upper Gallery are all busts of friends of the artist. Josephsohn had a fascination with the human figure and his sensitivity to his subjects can be seen on closer inspection, with the surface of the sculptures revealing subtle differences in the texture and form.”

Josephsohn was born in Kaliningrad, East Prussia, in 1920. He fled to Italy at the age of 18 to avoid persecution in Nazi Germany before moving to Zurich, where he spent the rest of his life. The exhibition runs until April.