Adolf Fehr (painter)

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Adolf Fehr (born February 1, 1889 in Zurich ; † October 14, 1964 there ; entitled to live in Berg am Irchel and Zurich) was a Swiss painter , draftsman and graphic artist who succeeded van Gogh and Hodler .

Life

Adolf Fehr was the son of a glass painter . Between 1903 and 1907 he learned the profession of typesetter (typographer) at the renowned NZZ printer . A few years later he founded a small printing company in Zurich. He had already started painting and drawing as a schoolboy and always maintained this during his work as a printer and typographer. His early works between 1917 and the late 1940s already show his extraordinary talent.

When he visited an exhibition with works by Vincent van Gogh in the 1920s, he had made up his mind to devote himself primarily to painting. The works of van Gogh with their pastose painting style exerted such a fascination on Fehr that he followed this great model very consistently and in his early works also used the technique of applying paint to the canvases in an almost spatula-like manner. He first found his subjects in his homeland, where mainly mountains, forests, rivers, glacier streams, farms, seascapes, but occasionally also large buildings and churches as well as pieces of flowers and genre representations were created.

Later he made trips to Italy, Holland and France, where other motifs were added. Self-portraits and portraits can also be found in all of the artist's creative phases.

The encounters with the works of Ferdinand Hodler, Giovanni Giacometti and Edvard Munch did not remain without resonance for his further development and led him from the early impasto painting style to a smoother application of paint.

In 1942 he handed over his printing works to his son Adolf III, and in 1944 the book “Tschinghiane” by Rudolf Bolo Maeglin was published with pen drawings by Fehr.

In addition to his residences in Zurich and Wiedikon , he had a studio in Matt between 1949 and 1954 and one in Sool ob Schwanden from 1954 .

In 1957 he started to keep a diary very late. The prices of his pictures reached over 5000 Swiss francs in the late 1950s and 1960s during his lifetime.

Fehr was married and had two sons and a daughter. He died almost blind on October 14, 1964 in Zurich.

After that, his oeuvre was temporarily forgotten, as his artistic legacy was not accessible in the estate for a long time and is only now available again for academic processing and for exhibitions.

Works

  • 1917: Portrait of a child
  • 1921: Landscape with homestead
  • 1928: Old house on the water
  • 1929: landscape
  • 1930: Landscape with a house by the lake
  • 1931: farmhouses
  • 1931: woman at work
  • 1932: View of the village with bare trees
  • 1932: still life
  • 1933: mountain village
  • 1933: Stony forest
  • 1934: landscape
  • 1935: Dutch landscape with a windmill
  • 1936: self-portrait
  • 1937: In the village
  • 1939: Self-portrait in front of the easel
  • 1939: mountain landscape
  • 1940: the tree in bloom
  • 1941: graphic work
  • 1942: End of work in the room
  • 1944: Matt
  • 1946: landscape
  • 1947: landscape
  • 1950: Italian landscape near Porto Romeo
  • 1951: self-portrait
  • 1952: self-portrait
  • 1953: mountain landscape
  • 1954: Self-portrait with a carnation
  • 1955: Self-portrait with an eye patch
  • 1957: Firence - Ponte Vecchio
  • 1958: Lake Zurich with sailing boats
  • 1959: mountain village

Exhibitions

  • 1931: Swiss National Art Exhibition
  • 1937: St. Anna Gallery Zurich
  • 1937: Museum Kunsthaus Zurich
  • 1950: Museum Kunsthaus Zurich
  • 1951: Museum Strauhof Zurich
  • 1953: Ex-libris Zurich
  • 1954: Galerie Benedetti Küsnacht
  • 1954: Museum Kunsthaus Glarus
  • 1954: Museum Kunsthaus Zurich
  • 1956: Contemporary Art Schwanden
  • 1958: Galerie Bohemia Glarus
  • 1959: Anniversary exhibition for the 70th birthday
  • 1974: Museum Kunsthaus Glarus
  • 2009: Museum Kunsthaus Glarus
  • 2011: Retrospective of Greillenstein Castle
  • 2012: Art in Parliament, Vienna

literature

  • Art and People 1938: No. 5 p.134 with illustration
  • Work 1952: HZ, Chron. P. 14
  • Life and Faith 1952: No. 6 p. 9 with illustration
  • Life and Faith 1952: No. 3 p. 9 with illustration
  • Life and Faith 1952: No. 7 cover illustration
  • Life and Faith 1952: No. 12 p. 5 with illustration
  • Kunsthaus Glarus 1974: exhibition catalog
  • Artist Lexicon of the XX. Century: page 283
  • Adolf Fehr - paintings, drawings and graphic works from the estate and from the museum
  • Exhibition catalog Adolf Fehr Retrospective, 2011

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Fehr, Adolf
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter
DATE OF BIRTH February 1, 1889
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH October 14, 1964
Place of death Zurich