Bendicht Friedli

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Bendicht Friedli (2014)

Bendicht Friedli (born May 20, 1930 in Bern ; † October 17, 2014 in Unterseen ) and brother of Peter Friedli was a Swiss painter and doctor . His work mainly includes paintings and drawings.

Life

Bendicht Friedli, also known as "Bänz", grew up in Bern, where he attended schools and the university. The young Bänz had an extraordinary talent for drawing. Nevertheless, he decided to study medicine. Here his ability to look closely and his steady hand came to his aid. In 1955 he completed his studies with the medical state examination. During his studies he met the later art collector and doctor Hans Suter, who built up the art collection Hans & Marlis Suter , which is now in the Höchhus in Steffisburg . With Hans Suter and also with his wife Marlis he was lifelong connected through a deep friendship. In 1956 Bänz moved to Unterseen after marrying his wife Linette (née Richard) . From 1959 to 1988 the couple ran a general medicine practice there. Around 1962 a friendly contact began with the painter couple Marguerite Frey-Surbek and Victor Surbek . Inspired by the painter Hugo Wetli , the first exhibition took place in the Aarequai gallery in Thun in 1972 .

Bänz had had his own studio since 1962, and from 1972 it was located in the old school building in Felden in Sigriswil . Around this time he was also occupied with paper cuts, which, as a stylistic element, were to have an influence especially on his later work. After leaving the doctor's office, from 1988 onwards he devoted himself exclusively to painting. In 1989 the first monograph by Peter Killer was published by Haupt-Verlag. The second monograph came out in 2000. A special edition of 50 pieces with an original painting in an acrylic glass case was published for both books.

From 1994 the painter built his own studio at his residence in Unterseen. This place is now the address of the Linette and Bendicht Friedli Foundation, which manages his estate. The art collection Hans & Marlis Suter has acquired more than 200 works by Bendicht Friedli since it was founded and showed them in numerous exhibitions, first in the Wichterheergut in Oberhofen and later in the Hochhüs in Steffisburg . The 18th art exhibition in 2009 in Trubschachen presented works by Bendicht Friedli. At this exhibition, the company Kambly SA presented a biscuit box that was decorated with a painting by Bendicht Friedli.

The death of his wife Linette represented a major turning point. Bendicht not only lost his beloved wife, but also his most important interlocutor on his numerous hikes in the mountains. While up until then he had almost always done his colored paintings on white paper, after that he only chose black paper or black primers as a background. The painted compositions were given black frames due to the exposed areas, based on his early work with paper cuts. This changed his painting style again decisively. In 2010 the Kunsthaus Interlaken organized a large exhibition at which these pictures were shown to the public for the first time. The last exhibition during his lifetime took place in the summer of 2014 in Hondrich near Spiez . It was organized by Käthi Wäfler-Beutler, who directed the chamber music concerts in Hondrich for many years and with whom Bänz had recently become friends. The art collection Kulturstiftung Unterseen KSU dedicated an exhibition to the deceased painter in autumn 2015. His life's work is administered by the Linette and Bendicht Friedli Foundation in Unterseen.

plant

From 1988 Bendicht Friedli developed his own very colorful visual language. The rectangular clouds and other stylistic elements are undoubtedly inspired by Paul Klee . The typical delimiting frames of the colored areas in the works of Fred Stauffer probably also had an influence. But his painterly work is always based on his own personal drawing. The studio painter never saw himself as a landscape painter, even if the mountains and lakes keep recurring: “I was never particularly interested in the atmosphere. I am not a plenary painter and certainly not an impressionist ... ” In his works, the individual drawing and expressive color design are in the foreground and not the exact representation of the landscape, but it is precisely this that gives the composition a high level of expressiveness.

Many works are drawn or painted by the right-hander with their left hand. They therefore have a signature in mirror writing. Rich ultramarine tends to create a color-in-itself contrast with strong red, yellow, green or turquoise. Some of the acrylic drawings in monochrome ultramarine blue are sometimes even painted with medical syringes. Preferred motifs are landscapes around Lake Thun with Niesen or Stockhorn, but cats and flower still lifes also appear again and again. Works from around 1980 such as Op-Art-Niesen are still reminiscent of Pop Art , after which color compositions emerge, sometimes as brightly colored drawings or as colored paintings in which the form dissolves in favor of color.

The acrylic painting Weisse Cloud (1998) shows the sneeze in fiery red, framed by lines in ultramarine blue, in front of a purple sky with a white cloud. The serigraph “Roter Niesen”, which was published in an edition of 120 copies, is similar in color. Sarnersee (1999) is a typical picture : the deep blue lake is framed by a violet-blue landscape in which patches of orange, green or red flash. The ultramarine blue forms framing lines. Above it is a light green sky with colored clouds. By combining different color contrasts, the painter achieves that the viewer is drawn into the landscape and the depth of the lake appears almost unfathomable.

Bendicht Friedli loved his cats. The motif of the cat sitting on the window sill with a sneezing look comes up again and again. In Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau (2010), two turquoise blue cat's eyes peek out from the lower silhouette-like ornament. The pictures on black in the late phase even show big cats: In Panther and Stockhorn (2014) a black and white spotted panther sits in front of the Stockhorn, in Am Vreneli (2011) a cat sits in front of the Wetterhorn, which is stylized as a magical mountain is. These pictures were shown in Hondrich 2014 and posthumously in Unterseen 2015. The big cats embody the almost inexhaustible motivation that is still unbroken even in the painter, who is severely affected by the disease. Even in the hour of death, Bänz is working on a picture of Lake Brienz, a final greeting to Victor Surbek .

Exhibitions (selection)

  • 1972 Aarequai Gallery, Thun (first solo exhibition, still with paper cuts)
  • 1975 Galerie Zähringer, Bern (also 1977, 1979, 1987 and 1992)
  • 1979 Aarequai Gallery, Thun
  • 1980 Château de Villa, Sierre
  • 1982 Participation in the IV. Thun exhibition, Art Museum Thun (with Paul Freiburghaus , Werner Fehlmann, among others )
  • 1984 Steffisburg art collection (with poster designed by Thun graphic artist and painter Knud Jacobsen )
  • 1986 Aarequai Gallery, Thun
  • 1991 Galerie Farb, Worb
  • 1994 1st Hondrich art exhibition (also at all subsequent ones)
  • 1997 Lotti Michel Gallery, Biel
  • 1998 Art Collection Gallery, Unterseen
  • 1999 Participation in the exhibition "Niesen", Art Museum Thun
  • 1999 Galerie Ramseyer & Kaelin, Bern (several exhibitions there, most recently 2007)
  • 2009 Participation in the 18th Trubschachen art exhibition
  • 2010 Solo exhibition at the Kunsthaus Interlaken
  • 2011 Bendicht Friedli and Hans Suter, Wichterheergut Oberhofen
  • 2014 last exhibition in Hondrich (with Käthi Wäfler-Beutler as curator)
  • 2015 Memorial exhibition Bendicht Friedli Art Collection Kulturstiftung Unterseen (together with Ueli Bettler)
  • 2017 Kunstmuseum Thun: "Telling Pictures"; Group exhibition with three paintings by Bendicht Friedli, u. a. Cover picture of the exhibition and poster with Bunte Kuh (1990)
  • 2018 S'Paradiesli in Sigriswil, mountains, lakes and animals , an exhibition by Galerie Eulenspiegel (together with Regula Kaeser-Bonanomi)

Works in collections (selection)

  • Art Museum Thun
  • Kunsthaus Interlaken
  • Kunstverein Frauenfeld
  • Art collection Hans & Marlis Suter , Steffisburg (with over 200 works)
  • Linette and Bendicht Friedli Foundation, Unterseen
  • Rudi Bindella collection

Web links

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Peter Killer: Bendicht Friedli, draftsman and painter , Stämpfli 2000.
  2. ↑ Hans Suter: Friedli's works continue to shine. Obituary in the Berner Zeitung on October 30, 2016
  3. ↑ Peter Killer: Bendicht Friedli or the path is created while walking , Haupt 1989.
  4. ↑ a b Invitation to the vernissage of the art exhibition in Wichterheergut on May 14, 2011: Bendicht Friedli and Hans Suter - an exciting team
  5. ↑ 2010 - Bendicht Friedli (CH) - Life is color and light, you guide my work. Artist portrait on http://www.kambly.com/de/geschenke/800/2010-Bendicht-Friedli-CH.htm
  6. ↑ Killer, Peter and Stoll, Irene: Art Collection Hans & Marlis Suter , pages 46, 48 and 227, Stämpfli 2005.
  7. ↑ a b Fischer, Matthias (ed.): Der Niesen - a mountain in the mirror of art , published on the occasion of the exhibition in the Thun Art Museum, p. 74, Benteli 1998.
  8. ↑ Weisse Wolke depicted in Peter Killer: Bendicht Friedli, drafter and painter , page 93, Stämpfli 2000.
  9. ↑ Sarnersee illustrated in Peter Killer: Bendicht Friedli, drafter and painter , page 35, Stämpfli 2000.
  10. ↑ The picture was auctioned at the Bern auction house Dobiaschofsky in November 2016, available at: http://www.artnet.com/artists/bendicht-friedli/eiger-m%C3%B6nch-und-jungfrau-AvVsWz9IGBRbei82gmpcEg2
  11. ↑ The starting point was a lithograph by Victor Surbek, the motif was included in Friedli's paintings, for example the picture with a view over Lake Brienz to the Niesen in Homage to Victor Surbek (2006).
  12. ↑ Reference to the art exhibition in the archive of the Kunsthaus: http://kunsthausinterlaken.ch/archiv/
  13. ↑ Anne-Marie Günter: The world is wind, is flower and waves , article in the Jungfrauzeitung, on September 13, 2010, available at: http://www.jungfrauzeitung.ch/artikel/106230/
  14. ↑ Archive of the Kunstverein, available at: http://www.kunstverein-frauenfeld.ch/xml_1/internet/de/application/d25/f49.cfm
  15. ↑ Art creates a quiet, valuable energy , article in the Tages-Anzeiger June 9, 2015, http://www.tagesanzeiger.ch/leben/essen-und-trinken/Kunst-schetzt-eine-stille-wertvolle-Energie/story / 11442997
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personal data
SURNAME Friedli, Bendicht
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Friedli, Bänz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter and doctor
DATE OF BIRTH May 20, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Bern
DATE OF DEATH 17th October 2014
Place of death Unterseen