Fritz Bernhard

This article deals with the Swiss artist. For the German physicist see Fritz Bernhard (physicist) . "Fritz Bernhard" was also used as a pseudonym by the humorous writer Erwin FB Albrecht .

Fritz Bernhard (born October 7, 1895 in Winterthur ; † August 28, 1966 there ) was a Swiss painter and professor of freehand drawing, modeling and architectural model making at the Technikum Winterthur (today: Zurich University of Applied Sciences) from 1928 to 1960.

family

Fritz Bernhard was born the son of Konrad Bernhard (1859–1932) and Anna Bernhard-Vogel (1866–1952). Konrad Bernhard grew up in poor conditions in Laufen am Rheinfall ( municipality of Dachsen ZH ). He worked at Gebrüder Sulzer AG in Winterthur, initially as a locksmith , then as a supervisor, and finally trained himself as a technical draftsman-designer. The mother Anna Bernhard-Vogel grew up in Neftenbach ZH and Herisau AR and was a dressmaker. Fritz Bernhard's sister Anna (1898–1936) also became a dressmaker and later ran an atelier for haute couture in Winterthur. In 1923 Fritz Bernhard married Maria Vittoria Torti (1897–1981), whose father ran a sculptor's studio for tomb art in Biasca TI ; Bernhard had a strong bond with Ticino and the Italian language as well as Ticino dialects.

Life

Fritz Bernhard attended primary school in Winterthur , during which he made friends with his future artist colleague Werner Meyer . He then graduated from the city industrial school , which he graduated with the Matura in 1914 . This time shaped the teachers Franz Fankhauser (Romanist), Gottfried Bohnenblust (Germanist) and Johann Heinrich Reinhart (drawing) as well as the friendship with classmate Guido Jenny. From 1914 to 1919 Bernhard attended courses and lectures at the art school of the Technikum Winterthur , at the University of Zurich , at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (namely with Johann Jakob Graf) and at the École des Beaux-Arts in Geneva (cours d'Académie et de Modelage). In 1919, Bernhard obtained the Zurich diploma of drawing teacher at elementary and secondary schools. This was followed by a trip to Italy at the invitation of his friend Guido Jenny as well as other study trips and assisting and journalistic activities. In 1928 Fritz Bernhard was elected professor as a teacher for freehand drawing, modeling and architectural model making at the Technikum Winterthur, where he worked for one semester as an assistant teacher until his retirement in 1960 and 1960/61.

Fritz Bernhard was a co-initiator and member of the Winterthur artist group founded in 1916 , a member of the Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors and Architects (GSMBA) and since 1926 an honorary member of the Société mutuelle artistique Genève .

Artistic development and work

Bernhard was fond of the clear form. His landscape painting showed echoes of plenairism and impressionism well into the 1930s . As a result, he increasingly considered the drawing component in his painting. During his time in Geneva, Bernhard also orientated himself autodidactically to Ferdinand Hodler .

In the 1940s Bernhard developed his drawing to the accuracy of the old masters , in particular in the 1930s and 40s at the turn of the year he created an etching in elaborate detailed work and increasingly used the colored pencil. In addition to the drawings that deal with light in a painterly manner, watercolors and landscapes in oil were increasingly used . In doing so, Bernhard did not develop photographic fidelity like Robert Zünd , but meticulously reproduced the structures in whose motifs Bernhard often immersed himself for many days. Contemporaries sometimes criticized these works as "academic"; In the Winterthur artist group, fighting for repression began in the late 1930s. The fact that Winterthur artists were not included in the orders for the painting of the city ​​church or the Rosenberg crematorium caused considerable discussions. Four murals by Winterthur artists (two of them by Bernhard, created around 1924) in the gym in Winterthur-Wülflingen and were destroyed undocumented during the renovation in 1973.

In private studies and designs for mostly unrealized murals, Bernhard showed a move towards the monumental. Allegorical, illustrative, even anecdotal representations can be found in small etchings as well as in larger oil paintings. With scenes from Homer or from Carl Spitteler's epics, Bernhard worked as a painter-poet. Symbolic expression of the longing for peace or of death stands next to images that are inspired from Offenbach's operettas The Beautiful Helena and Orpheus in the Underworld and from Cervantes' Don Quixote . Here Bernhard was influenced by the narrative disposition of Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901) and his pupil Albert Welti (1862–1912).

While loveless interventions in the landscape stunned Bernhard, he was also fascinated by technology and industrial architecture: in depictions of factory areas he worked out different perspectives and perspectives, in landscapes a yellow automobile suddenly appeared as a color contrast or a four-engine fighter plane, the size of a mosquito, was in the sky ( Bernhard did active service as a scout during World War II).

Occasionally Bernhard developed futuristic visions or created caricatures and humorous occasional graphics for festival programs and carnival newspapers. In 1945 he illustrated Die Reise der Tellus by Ole Eklund (Original: Undrat från Kraterön ) for the novel in the Winterthurer Tagblatt . There was a wide distribution of three coloring books for young people that Bernhard created on behalf of the Maggi food factory in Kemptthal ZH in 1932 ( My painting and drawing book ), 1943 ( De chli painter ) and 1946 ( How do I learn to draw and paint? ) .

In addition to countless graphic works, including book illustrations, Fritz Bernhard left around 140 oil paintings in the unsold estate.

literature

• Fritz Bernhard. "Neue Zürcher Graphik" In: Das Graphisches Kabinett, Zurich 1919.
• Roberto Bernhard. “The senior citizens of the artist group.” In: Neues Winterthurer Tagblatt , No. 285, December 6, 1966: p. 9
• Roberto Bernhard. Fritz Bernhard (1895–1966), Winterthur. Self-published, 1995. (Text on the occasion of the exhibition on the artist's 100th birthday in the Deringer Collection, Unterstammheim ZH).
• Erich Calame. "Prof. Fritz Bernhard + memorial words, spoken at the abdication ceremony on September 1, 1966 by Prof. EC “In: Mitteilungen des Verein Former des Technikums Winterthur ETW, issue 18. Winterthur: April 1967, p. 67ff.
• Hans Kägi. "Fritz Bernhard", in: Winterthurer Heimatblätter: Addition to the New Winterthurer Tagblatt of October 2, 1948: pp. 137-144.
• Hans Kägi. “Those who fell asleep in the period from October 1965 to August 1966.” In: Winterthurer yearbook 1967. Winterthur, 1967: pages 215ff. (especially 223 and 228).

Web links

• Bernhard, Fritz. In: Sikart