Peder Lund Art Advisory Associates congratulates the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art on the acquisition of Snowman (1987–1989/2026) by the Swiss artist duo Peter Fischli (b. 1952) and David Weiss (1946–2012). The work is the latest addition to Louisiana’s Sculpture Park.
Fischli and Weiss developed the idea for Snowman between 1987 and 1989 for a proposed sculpture project at the Römerbrücke power station in Saarbrücken, Germany. They envisioned using surplus energy from the station to sustain the work. The proposal connected the sculpture’s familiar subject to broader questions of technology, climate, nature, and art.
The installation consists of a freezer inhabited by a snowman. Water vapor is periodically released and freezes around an aluminum frame, gradually forming the figure. At Louisiana, the work is powered entirely by a solar panel. The machine that keeps it frozen continually makes and remakes the snowman.
Playful yet quietly unsettling, Snowman brings nature and artifice into close contact. The snowman is an everyday, almost folkloric form of sculpture, yet its survival depends on technology. This gentle absurdity is characteristic of Fischli and Weiss, whose work often balances humor, careful observation, and a sense of impermanence.
Since its conception in the late 1980s, each variation of Snowman has been unique, reflecting years of experimentation. Versions have been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, among others. Unique examples are held by Fondation Beyeler, Riehen, Switzerland, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, US; and the Queensland Art Gallery & Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane, Australia.
Fischli and Weiss are among the most influential artists of their generation. Working across sculpture, photography, film, and installation, they brought close attention to ordinary objects and everyday situations, using humor to challenge familiar ways of seeing. Their work explores how meaning emerges through observation, transformation, and the relationships between objects and their surroundings.
Their work has been the subject of major exhibitions at institutions including the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1992); Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (1996); Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (2000); Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam (2003–04); Tate Modern, London (2006–07); and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2016), with the retrospective later traveling to Museo Jumex in Mexico City. The duo represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 1995 and 2003, receiving the Golden Lion in 2003. They also participated in documenta in 1987 and 1997. After David Weiss’s death in 2012, Peter Fischli has continued to live and work in Zurich.
We have been pleased to place works by Fischli and Weiss in private and public collections in Scandinavia and internationally. We are delighted to see Snowman join Louisiana’s collection and take its place in the Sculpture Park.
Watch an interview with Peter Fischli on Louisiana Channel.
Installation view, Peter Fischli and David Weiss, Snowman, (1987–1989/2026), Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark, 2026. © Peter Fischli and David Weiss, courtesy Louisiana Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Camilla Stephan © Louisiana Museum of Modern Art.
