Alfonso Hüppi trained as a silversmith in Luzern in 1950 before studying at the Kunst- und Werkschule Pforzheim and the Hochschule für Bildende Kunst in Hamburg after 1954. From 1961 he taught calligraphy and painting at the Hamburg Art Academy. From there he went to Baden-Baden, where he was employed at the Staatliche Kunsthalle from 1964 to 1968. During those years he did his first "Kistenbilder" ["Crate Pictures"], which he made from untreated wood used for packing crates and pallets. From then on Hüppi experimented freely with wood and paper as his materials. In 1974 he was appointed professor at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and stayed there until 1999. He was also awarded the 1974 Art Prize of the Preußische Akademie der Künste, Berlin, for his achievement. The first awards were followed in 1997 by the Hans Thoma Prize of the State of Baden-Württemberg. In 1998 Hüppi joined forces with Erwin Gebert to found the "Museum in the Bush" in Namibia, which he still supervises as its director. Hüppi follows up on the changes of the two-dimensional to the three-dimensional and vice versa and does this through all areas of application in the visual arts, from the smallest drawing through sculptural pictures to architecturally related spatial installations. Numerous solo and group shows have been devoted to his diverse and prolific œuvre since the mid-1960s.