Andreas Walser

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Andreas Walser (born  April 13, 1908 in Chur , Canton of Graubünden , † March 19, 1930 in Paris ) was a Swiss painter , writer and photographer .

A painting by Andreas Walser.

Life

1908-1928

On April 13, 1908, Andreas Walser was born in Chur as the second son of the dean and pastor Peter Walser (1871-1938) and his wife Else (née Gerber; 1883-1935). There he graduated from 1921 to 1928 high school at the Bündner Kantonsschule, from which he graduated with the Matura. He then set up a studio in his parents' house. Walser copied works by Giovanni Giacometti (1868–1933) and Augusto Giacometti (1877–1947) in the Bündner Kunstmuseum . He made friends with Bruno Giacometti (1907–2012) and joined other classmates interested in art such as the later architect Rudolf Olgiati (1910–1995) and the local researcher Paul Zinsli (1906–2001).

Since the spring of 1927, articles written by Andreas Walser mostly about visual artists have appeared in Swiss daily newspapers. In February of the same year he sent artistic works to the exhibition “Swiss Youth and the Art of Drawing” in the Kunsthalle Bern . His drawing teacher at the high school Hans Jenny (1866–1944) encouraged Walser, as he recognized the talent he was. Walser made ex-libris for friends and acquaintances . He met the writer Hermann Hiltbrunner (1893–1961) and also made the acquaintance of the soprano Bärby Hunger (1901–1986), who remained one of his closest confidants until his death.

In May 1928 Walser received a visit from Augusto Giacometti, who spoke to Andreas' parents about the son's stay in Paris. On June 24th, a first visit to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880–1938) took place in Davos. Later in the summer he spent a long time in Seewis in the Prättigau , where his first larger paintings were made. In autumn 1928 Walser was able to go to Paris with the permission of his parents. Before leaving at the end of September, he had contact with Graubünden artists who were already there: Paul Martig (1903–1962) and Leonhard Meisser, with whom he became friends.

Walser's first accommodation in Paris was the Hôtel Edgar Quinet, Boulevard Edgar Quinet 17 in the 14th arrondissement near the Montparnasse train station . From mid-October he lived in a studio area at 16bis rue Bardinet. Numerous works were created in Atelier 4 of Villa Léone, where Leonhard Meisser had worked before Walser. From October Walser attended the Académie Colarossi , one of the numerous private training centers for art, as well as courses at the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière, to do life drawing . Here was the beginning of the friendship with the student Emmanuel Boudot-Lamotte (1908–1981). Walser also made the acquaintance of the German poet Albert H. Rausch (1882–1949), who published under the pseudonym Henry Benrath . With Augusto Giacometti and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner as well as Bärby Hunger Walser stayed in contact by letter. He visited her regularly when he traveled to Switzerland. In December he met Pablo Picasso (1881–1973) for the first time . Walser spent Christmas and New Years with his parents in Chur and visited Kirchner from there.

1929

In January 1929, back in Paris, Andreas Walser sought the acquaintance of Jean Cocteau (1889–1963), the influential Parisian writer, artist and filmmaker. He was living in a clinic in Saint Cloud because of an opium withdrawal treatment. The contact was initially through letters, but from March onwards Walser visited the artist frequently. He also met the poet Georges Hugnet (1906–1974). In the course of the spring Walser met many other artists and members of Parisian bohemian circles. He painted portraits of Picasso, Cocteau and Giorgio de Chirico (1888–1978), among others , but also of the poet Colette (1873–1954). He also met Klaus Mann (1906–1949) and the Swiss painter Rudolf Zender (1901–1988), a friend of Kirchner's.

During this time, Walser was influenced by Jean Fautrier (1898–1964) and engaged in avant-garde photography. Maurice Tabard (1897–1984), who taught him the technical basics of the technical medium, and the photographer George Hoyningen-Huene (1900–1968) owned his photographic works according to Walser's records.

This is how he got to know the technique of collage . Encouraged by Kirchner, who was in contact with the Bauhaus student Fritz Winter (1905–1976), he considered studying at the Bauhaus Dessau .

The first commercial successes began in early 1929, partly due to the mediation of Picasso. The Picasso collector Wilhelm Uhde (1874–1947) and the Galerie Jeanne Bucher took on larger groups of works. (The Jeanne Bucher Gallery was founded in 1925 by Jeanne Bucher (1872–1946) and was one of the most important avant-garde galleries in Paris; it still exists today.) A painting by Walser was exhibited in 1929 in the Pierre Gallery. The Quatre Chemins gallery, headed by the writer Maurice Sachs (1906–1945), showed paintings by Walser in the spring and announced a solo exhibition for the autumn.

Presumably Andreas Walser had come into contact with drugs in the Cocteau circle . In late April, he narrowly escaped death after an overdose. He spent most of the summer in Graubünden. At the same time, the Exposition d'art abstrait took place in Paris , which was put together in the context of the group of artists Cercle et Carré and which Walser took part in. At the end of July he visited Kirchner and met the painter Fritz Winter on the Wildboden.

At the end of September, Walser moved into a room in the Vénétia-Hôtel on Boulevard du Montparnasse 159. At this point he decided to paint larger pictures and worked on translations of works by the poets Jean Desbordes (1906–1944) and René Crevel (1900–1935). In October he visited Bärby Hunger in Paris. In November he wrote the illustrated prose poem Le balcon , which he dedicated to his younger brother Peter.

1930

For Christmas and New Years 1929/1930 Walser was in Switzerland. On the return trip to Paris, he visited René Crevel in Leysin , who had a lung condition and , after this visit, recommended the American poet and collector Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) to look at works by the young artist. In mid-January, Walser moved to 6 rue Armand Moisant in the 15th arrondissement. He shared the studio with the musician Guy de la Pierre. At the end of January Walser started a trip to Marseille and Corsica with this and the German baron HA von Maltzahn (Maltzan) . In the three to four weeks on the Mediterranean, he seemed to recover. He drew a lot, but gave up translating the Crevel text. The German art critic, philosopher and man of letters Carl Einstein (1885–1940) announced his visit to him.

On March 19, 1930, Andreas Walser died as a result of a drug overdose. (Klaus Mann, however, claimed that Walser shot himself). He was buried in the cemetery in the Paris suburb of Thiais.

reception

Only part of Walser's estate ended up in Switzerland. It was not until the 1980s that it became known that a significant block of works that were created there has been preserved in Paris. In November 1971 a small solo exhibition took place in the Bündner Kunstmuseum in Chur. The first comprehensive retrospectives on Walser's life and work were shown in 1994 in the Bündner Kunstmuseum, in 1995 in the Kunstmuseum Winterthur and in 1996 in the Center Culturel Suisse in Paris. In 2001 a detailed monograph on Andreas Walser was published. In 2004, based on letters from Barbara Liebster's radio play I kiss you so completely - but from so far and far and cold. In 2005/2006 the Kirchner Museum Davos showed the exhibition Andreas Walser - Love, Dream & Death.

literature

  • Marco Obrist (ed.): Andreas Walser (Chur 1908 - 1930 Paris): pictures, letters, texts. Exhibition catalog (Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur, October 1 - November 20, 1994, Kunstmuseum Winterthur, January 14 - March 12, 1995). Stroemfeld, Basel and Frankfurt am Main 1994, ISBN 3-87877-489-3 .
  • Marco Obrist (ed.): "My pictures stay, they will speak of me later". Andreas Walser 1908–1930. Nicolai, Berlin 2001, ISBN 3-87584-113-1 .
  • Roland Scotti (ed.): Andreas Walser - Love, Dream & Death. Steidl, Göttingen 2005, ISBN 3-86521-254-9 .
  • Marco Obrist and Beat Stutzer (eds.): Andreas Walser / Gaudenz Signorell: A dialogue. Exhibition catalog (Bündner Kunstmuseum, Chur). Benteli, Bern 2006, ISBN 3-7165-1422-5 .
  • Heinz Bütler and Wolfgang Frei (eds.): The night is brighter than the day: the short life of the painter Andreas Walser. Benteli, Bern 2007, ISBN 978-3-7165-1445-0 .
  • Heinz Bütler: Métro to the Hell Gate: Andreas Walser 1908 Chur - 1930 Paris . Limmat, Zurich 2017, ISBN 978-3-85791-832-2 .
  • Margrit Heuss-Brunner: Memories of Andreas Walser as a canton student . In: Bündner Jahrbuch 2020, pp. 63–68.

documentary

  • Heinz Bütler (script and direction): The night is brighter than the day - the short life of the painter Andreas Walser. NZZ, SFDRS, ZDF / 3sat, 2007, 87 min.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Description at Deutschlandradio Kultur on January 16, 2011, accessed on February 11, 2011.
  2. ↑ Description at NZZ Film. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
  3. ↑ Film text at NZZ Format. Retrieved February 11, 2011.
personal data
SURNAME Walser, Andreas
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter, poet and photographer
DATE OF BIRTH April 13, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Chur
DATE OF DEATH March 19, 1930
Place of death Paris