The son of peasants first concluded an apprenticeship as a stonemason, before he went to Switzerland and worked for a sculptor in Basel, for whom he executed fountain sculptures. He met the artist Albert Müller, with whom he later founded the group “Rot-Blau” (Red-Blue). In the early 1920s, an exhibition with works by Edvard Munch prompted him to turn to painting and to Expressionism. In 1923 he met Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, who invited him to Davos. There Scherer created wood sculptures for the first time. Soon afterwards, the Kunsthalle Basel presented an exhibition of the group „Rot-Blau“, with wood sculptures by Scherer. The exhibition received national an international attention.
Scherer, who died at the age of 34, is considered one of the outstanding sculptors of Expressionism.
