Alfred Willimann

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Alfred Willimann (born February 26, 1900 in Klingnau , † January 17, 1957 in Zurich ) was a Swiss sculptor , painter and draftsman .

Life

Growing up in a family with 14 children, Alfred Willimann's father, who worked as a hairdresser and landlord, showed little understanding for his talent as a draftsman and his desire for education at the Zurich School of Applied Arts . Nevertheless, after completing his compulsory schooling in 1916, he was able to attend the preparatory class for a year. He then began an apprenticeship as a graphic designer, which he had to break off after three months due to the early death of his father in order to earn his own money. With that, his idea of ​​becoming a performing artist as a dancer or musician was also dashed. As early as 1917, he was self-employed as a freelance sculptor, commercial artist, painter and draftsman in Zurich and was listed in the Swiss Artists' Lexicon from that year . In 1918 he won first prize in the poster competition that the Bernese book and art dealer Ferdinand Wyss (1881–1972) had advertised together with the Swiss Werkbund (SWB).

In 1921 he began studying art for four semesters at the Academy of Arts in Berlin . Between 1923 and 1940 he was married to the graphic artist, illustrator and craftsperson Johanna Fülscher (1893–1978). In 1941 he married Leni Thöni (1918–2002), who was a student in the photography class from 1937–1940. In 1925 Willimann first went to Munich for six months and then worked as a designer at a large Zurich printing company and the Orell Füssli publishing house . From this time onwards, he wanted to do a teaching job. With the reputation of Alfred Altherr sen. , who was its director from 1912 to 1938, he took on this task from 1929 in the classes for freehand drawing and font design at the Zurich School of Applied Arts.

In 1932 he became a member of the SWB and in the same year he was able to design the exhibition poster Das Licht in Heim, Büro und Werkstatt , with which the company Schweizer Wohnbedarf, founded in the previous year and stylistically related to the Bauhaus , advertised an exhibition for light fittings and lamps in the Kunstgewerbemuseum Zurich. In 1931 he became a member of the international artists' association Abstraction-Création , founded in Paris in 1931 . From 1934 to 1957 he was a teacher in the photography class at the Zurich School of Applied Arts, where he taught font and advertising design, photo montage and layout.

From 1935 on, Willimann also offered commercial commissioned work. His customers included the porcelain factory and linen weaving mill in Langenthal, the furniture factory Horgen-Glarus AG , Karl Steiner (Zurich), the restaurant Terrasse (Zurich). He also worked for map and tourism brochures, even before 1933 for Davos , Trübsee , Rheinfelden and the Grand Hotel Cattani ( Engelberg ), then for the Swiss Traffic Center (Zurich) and the Swiss Alpine Post. He also drew postage stamps and book covers, for example for the Swiss National Exhibition in 1939 , for which he created the official badge. He was responsible for the planning for plastic jewelry at the Kongresshaus Zurich , which was not carried out, and in 1941 a “metal table sculpture ” as a gift from the city of Zurich to the city of Bern to mark its 750th anniversary. Between 1948 and 1955 Willimann devoted himself more to poster design, for example with posters for the Kunsthaus Zürich on “Art Treasures of Lombardy”, “Ancient Roman Portraits”, “Medieval Frescoes from Yugoslavia” and “The Beauty of the 18th Century”. In 1951 he published about reproduction processes, and in 1955 he created word marks for Hasselblad , but this was not implemented for Lignoplast and the paint factory Werner Grohmann AG in Zurich.

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ^ History of the School of Applied Arts 1906–1912, the time of director Jules de Praetere , panel of the exhibition Foundation and Development - Retrospective; 1878–1978: 100 years of the Zurich School of Applied Arts / School of Design .
  2. ^ Poster for the exhibition The light in the home, office and workshop in the eMuseum, Museum für Gestaltung Zürich.
personal data
SURNAME Willimann, Alfred
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss sculptor, painter and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH February 26, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Klingnau
DATE OF DEATH 17th January 1957
Place of death Zurich