Parco di Sculture Iesa, Tuscany
I want to depict aspects of society and, above all, create documents of our times. That is why I paint them in bright colours and often draw them with an ironic tone, while at the same time trying to take certain aesthetic aspects and forms into account.— Kurt Laurenz Metzler
Kurt Laurenz Metzler (1941–2024) is among the most internationally recognised Swiss sculptors of his generation, known for his monumental, vividly coloured figures that inhabit public spaces, museums and private collections across Europe, Asia, Australia and the United States.
Born in Balgach, Switzerland, Metzler trained as a sculptor in Zurich in the early 1960s. A formative period in New York during the 1970s brought him into contact with leading figures of the contemporary art scene, including Jim Dine and Larry Rivers, and helped shape his distinctive artistic language. His work evolved toward expressive, stylised human figures, often rendered in bold colours and industrial materials, exploring themes of urban life, identity, and the fragility of the human condition.
Throughout his career, Metzler realised numerous large-scale public commissions and participated in major exhibitions and art fairs worldwide. His sculptures have been installed in cities such as Rome, Milan, Singapore, and various locations in Australia and the United States, where his iconic Urban People figures became especially recognisable.
Among his most prestigious commissions was the creation of sculptural stage elements for the Teatro del Silenzio in Lajatico, used as a backdrop for performances by internationally acclaimed artists, including Andrea Bocelli.
Metzler remained artistically active into his later years. His work is characterised by a unique balance between monumentality and irony, weight and lightness, often portraying contemporary human figures in moments of vulnerability, movement, or quiet introspection. He passed away in Zurich in December 2024, leaving behind a widely exhibited and internationally collected body of work.
Here at the park, the light is different. Here I can work well.— Kurt Laurenz Metzler
In 1989, Metzler bought an 18th-century farmhouse near the Petriolo thermal baths. What began as a retreat became his life's work: a sculpture park, opened on 7 July 1995, now home to more than seventy pieces from six decades of practice.
The park was conceived in the spirit of Arte Ambientale. The same movement produced Niki de Saint Phalle's Giardino dei Tarocchi and Daniel Spoerri's Giardino, both close friends of Metzler. Today it is the most comprehensive permanent exhibition of his work.
Visit the parkMetzler was an artist who never stopped telling stories. Six pieces, six chapters from a life.
The first serial sculpture in fiberglass in modern art history. Four figures in six copies each form an anonymous collective, a revolutionary class. Metzler was 27.
One of the visitors' favourites. A depiction of brutality, authority and irony. It is one of the first sculptures in Fiberglass that Metzler made and shown at the Park. It also won him an important prize.
At the Venice Biennale Metzler noticed an entire city was reading. The news being read becomes an extension of their thoughts. Metzler invites us to reflect on how what we read, and how we read it, speaks about us — about our priorities, our anxieties or curiosities.
The human being is no longer mass, but void, cut-out, absence. It is one of the artist's most conceptual and philosophical series, in which the negative form becomes the protagonist, and the human being is for the first time defined by what is missing rather than by what he is.
Bronze figures on slender aluminium columns, a re-enactment of Metzler's 1995 exhibition at the Terme di Caracalla in Rome. There, modern art met the ruins of antiquity.
A scene-design for jazz drummer Billy Cobham in New York. A hollow head, musicians inside, a crown of nails to be played as drums. Never built. The sketch lives here.
Respect for craftsmanship is essential. The concept matters, but without a love for the material and the technique, something is missing.— Kurt Laurenz Metzler
Metzler worked with every material known in sculpture in over seven decades. From carved limestone in his Zurich apprenticeship to monumental aluminium for Singapore's Changi Airport. Each material a different grammar, each surface a different story.
His studio in Iesa, adjacent to the farmhouse and opening onto the park, is where almost every work since 1989 was conceived, modelled, cast or assembled. Sketches, plaster maquettes, half-finished bronzes still rest on the workbenches. We are slowly opening this archive.
For sales of works by Kurt Laurenz Metzler, authentication and restoration services for existing pieces, or donations to the park's archive — we are happy to hear from you.
Get in touchThe first floor of the original 18th-century farmhouse is now an apartment for guests. The space once served as an extension of Metzler's studio. Stay among the works, wake up to Tuscan hills, walk the park before the public arrives.
Airbnb listings available from mid-June 2026
The park hosts curated talks and conferences on contemporary art, alongside selected exhibitions and concerts. Programme published seasonally.
For external exhibitions of KLM's work and further events, please get in touch.
Over the years, I have always kept one work from the different periods and phases in which I experimented. As if I knew that one day I would have a place to bring them all together.— Kurt Laurenz Metzler
From the 1970s to today, Kurt Laurenz Metzler's monumental works have stood in city squares, hotels, airports and public gardens. From Switzerland to Singapore, from Australia to the Netherlands. A selection from over fifty years of public commissions.
A guided experience through the most comprehensive permanent exhibition of Metzler's life's work, set across four hectares of Tuscan landscape.
To book the park for private events, please contact us.
An audio guide in the artist's voice will accompany park visits from 2026.