Hans Erni

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Hans Erni, 2010

Hans Erni (born February 21, 1909 in Lucerne ; † March 21, 2015 in Lucerne ) was a Swiss painter , graphic artist and sculptor . He designed numerous lithographs , around 300 posters and several murals (for example for the Swiss Red Cross , the IOC , the UN and UNESCO , the ICAO and many public and private companies), illustrated around 200 non-fiction books , encyclopedias and literary works and created drafts for around 90 postage stamps (mainly for Switzerland, Liechtenstein and the UN) and 25 medals . For the Swiss National Bank he designed three reserve banknotes (for the fourth banknote series in 1938) and in 2009 the official 50-franc gold coin 100 years of Pro Patria .

50-franc gold coin 100 years of Pro Patria , 2009, designed by Hans Erni

Career

Beginnings

Ornamental fountain by Hans Erni in the scented rose garden in Rapperswil

After finishing school, Erni began an apprenticeship as a surveying technician , but then did a second apprenticeship as a draftsman . Back then, in 1927, he had first contact with art literature and began studying art in Lucerne. In 1928 he traveled to Paris for the first time, where he won the annual competition of the Académie Julian . Because he was a foreigner, he was not paid the price. Ten years later he was a member of the jury for this competition. From 1930 to 1933 he alternated between Lucerne and Paris. During this time he became acquainted with contemporary French painting - he was deeply impressed by Picasso and Braque .

On behalf of the Lucerne Art Museum, he organized an exhibition of the then current painters. Even Picasso was grateful to him for the opportunity to exhibit his pictures in Switzerland. Due to his first public mural commissions, he dealt with abstract painting for the first time in 1936 . In 1937 he was a co-founder of the allianz artists' association .

Broad spectrum

50-franc note designed by Erni, reverse side
30 centimes stamp from Liechtenstein designed by Erni (valid 1969-2001)

In 1938, Erni and Victor Surbek were involved in the design of the fourth series of banknotes for the Swiss National Bank, where he designed the thousand, five hundred and fifty notes . The series was printed, but never circulated because it was a reserve series, allegedly also because a Lucerne parliamentarian had objected that "of all people, a communist like Erni" had received this order. Erni had a reputation as a communist - he never belonged to a party himself - especially because of his friendship with Konrad Farner ; after the Hungarian uprising of 1956, he finally distanced himself from it. In the course of the fiche affair in 1991 he received his 36-page fiche.

He became known to the general public in 1939 with various works such as a mural for the Swiss National Exhibition . From 1940 to 1945 he did his active service as a camouflage painter. In 1950 he made his first ceramics . Solo exhibitions were held in several major American cities between 1950 and 1952. The planned participation in the São Paulo Biennale in 1951 was forbidden by the then Federal Councilor Philipp Etter . After living in Mauritania and Guinea for a year , he painted many African subjects. In 1960, together with Alfred Pauletto , Celestino Piatti , Hugo Wetli and Kurt Wirth, he organized an exhibition on the subject of graphic artists as painters . In 1964 he was a participant in documenta III in Kassel in the graphics department .

Hans Erni (1967)

From 1961 to 1993 Erni was a corresponding member of the Academy of Arts of the GDR , Fine Arts Section. Erni designed three series of stamps for the Principality of Liechtenstein: "250 Years of the Principality of Liechtenstein" (1969), "Sapporo 1972 (Winter Olympic Games)" (1971) and a year later, "Olympic Summer Games Munich 1972". He also designed numerous stamp series for the UN and Switzerland, including portraits of Max Bill , Albert Einstein , Alberto Giacometti , Hermann Hesse , Arthur Honegger , Paul Klee , Le Corbusier , Thomas Mann and Rainer Maria Rilke . His 50 centimes European brand “Air and Water” (1986) has won several international awards and was named the best brand of the year.

Later recognition

The gradual rehabilitation as an artist began in 1966 with an exhibition in Schaffhausen . In 1967 he was awarded the Art and Culture Prize of the City of Lucerne . The Swiss art museums continued to boycott him and his works, despite (or because of) his continued popularity .

On September 15, 1979, the Hans Erni Museum was opened in the Lucerne Museum of Transport with a very large collection of works by the artist. For this he painted a 30-meter-long mural Panta rhei (“everything flows”).

Erni was intensely committed to sport. Therefore, he painted many pictures on this subject and designed the medals for the rowers twice - and once each for the ice hockey and handball world championships. The United States Sports Academy named him Sports Artist of the Year 1989.

Since 1951, Erni's works have been shown at 48 exhibitions in the USA, including a. 1993 at the Pence Gallery in San Francisco . In 2004, the city of Lucerne granted him honorary citizenship.

Erni also repeatedly served political purposes that corresponded to his convictions with pictures: nationally for voting campaigns (e.g. for the introduction of the AHV or women's suffrage ), internationally especially for nature conservation and against nuclear weapons . He painted pictures to commemorate the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001 and the tsunami of December 26, 2004 . In 2005 he was awarded the Medal of Honor for Lifetime Achievement in Saint-Paul-de-Vence . Since the 1980s, Hans Erni lived temporarily in the city where Marc Chagall once lived.

On January 10, 2009 - one month before his 100th birthday - Hans Erni received the Swiss Lifetime Award 2008 in recognition of his life's work. Until he was one hundred and six years old, Erni worked in the studio every day.

Personal and trivia

  • Hans Erni was first married to the artist Gertrud Bohnert (* 1908, † 1948 in a riding accident). In 1949 he married the secretary Doris Kessler, who was 18 years his junior. From his first marriage he had a daughter, Simone Erni , who also works as an artist. The second marriage resulted in two daughters and a son.
  • His father Gotthard Erni was a machinist on a steamship (the paddle steamer "Uri" ) and a hobby painter, his mother Maria originally a farmer. He had three brothers and four sisters; the oldest, Maria Strebi-Erni (born January 14, 1907), died at the age of 107.
  • In the first half of his life he was an active and successful athlete ( land hockey , ski jumping and cross-country skiing ). This sporting activity later presumably forced two hip operations.
  • Hans Erni trained as a private pilot at the age of 37 . He dedicated various works of art to aviation. He created the color scheme for a PC-12 from the Pilatus aircraft factory .
  • Erni lived a moderately ascetic lifestyle : little sleep, a lot of work, hardly any alcohol, no tobacco, a diet rich in meat and vitamins, plus plenty of milk and water.
  • His favorite motifs were the dove of peace and nudes ("Man is born naked and dies naked"). He also painted a self-portrait every year , which he gave to his wife.
  • In 1948 Erni took part as a painter in the art competitions at the Summer Olympics in London.

documentary

literature

  • Konrad Farner : Hans Erni: way and aim of the artist. Works from the years 1931 to 1942 . Amstutz, Herdeg & Co., Zurich 1943.
  • Konrad Farner: Hans Erni. A painter of our time (= heritage and present. Vol. 48). Mundus, Basel 1945.
  • Josef Rast: Graphic artist as painter: Hans Erni, Alfred Pauletto, Celestino Piatti, Hugo Wetli, Kurt Wirth . Kunstverein Olten, Olten 1962.
  • Catalog raisonné de l'œuvre lithography et grave de Hans Erni . 2 volumes. Caillier, Geneva 1969.
  • Walter Rüegg : Hans Erni. I. The pictorial work . Edited by Ernst Scheidegger . Edition Erpf, Bern 1979.
  • John Matheson: Hans Erni. The graphic work and public works . Ex libris, Zurich 1983.
  • Hans Erni. Catalog raisonné of the lithographs . ABC, Zurich 1993, ISBN 3-85504-141-5 .
  • Jean-Charles Giroud: Hans Erni. The posters from 1929–1992 . Benteli, Bern 1993.
  • Enrico Ghidelli: Art in miniature. The philatelic and numismatic works of Hans Erni . Multipress, Reinach 1995, ISBN 3-9520837-0-4 .
  • Jean-Charles Giroud: Hans Erni. Catalog raisonné des livres illustrés . Geneva 1996.
  • John Matheson (Ed.): Hans Erni gestaltend - Hans Erni à l'œuvre - Hans Erni at work . ABC, Zurich 1996, ISBN 3-85504-161-X .
  • Karl Bühlmann: Outlawed - respected. The history of the Hans Erni Museum in the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne. A documentation . Hans Erni Foundation, Lucerne 1997, DNB 952382261 .
  • Andres Furger: Atelier talks with Hans Erni . NZZ , Zurich 1998, ISBN 3-85823-739-6 .
  • Karl Bühlmann, Marco Obrist: Hans Erni. Dialog. Working in public space . Benteli, Bern 2002, ISBN 3-7165-1285-0 .
  • Karl Bühlmann: Contemporary witness Hans Erni. Documents from a biography from 1909 to 2009 . Neue Zürcher Zeitung, Zurich 2009, ISBN 978-3-03823-505-7 .
  • Hans Erni in the Munzinger archive ( beginning of article freely available)

Web links

Commons : Hans Erni  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Roman Bucheli: artist Hans Erni died: Between Decor and Art , NZZ Online , March 22, 2015, accessed on March 22, 2015.
  2. ↑ Swiss National Bank (SNB) - Fourth series of banknotes 1938. In: snb.ch. Retrieved March 11, 2014 .
  3. ↑ Illustrations of Swiss commemorative gold coins. (PDF) (No longer available online.) In: swissmint.ch. Archived from the original on December 14, 2016 ; accessed on July 26, 2019 . Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.swissmint.ch
  4. ↑ Biography of Hans Erni on the website Adhikara Art Gallery and Museum .
  5. ↑ Hans Erni - short biography , on the website of the Academy of the Arts, accessed on October 26, 2014.
  6. ↑ "Every morning from ten o'clock I am in the studio" , Switzerland on Sunday, January 31, 2016
  7. ↑ Hans Erni: The painter mourns his sister. In: Schweizer Illustrierte . February 6, 2014.
  8. ↑ Hans Erni designs the Pilatus PC-12 NG
personal data
SURNAME Erni, Hans
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter, graphic artist and sculptor
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1909
PLACE OF BIRTH Lucerne
DATE OF DEATH March 21, 2015
Place of death Lucerne