Fritz Glarner

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Fritz Glarner (born July 20, 1899 in Zurich , Switzerland ; † September 18, 1972 in Locarno ) was a Swiss-American painter .

Life

Glarner was born the son of a mill designer in Zurich. He spent his childhood and youth in Naples and France . Glarner began his artistic training in 1914, studying painting at the “Regio Istituto di Belle Arti” in Naples. He himself worked as a drawing teacher in Sarno from 1917 . In 1923 he moved to Paris and continued his artistic training at the Académie Colarossi from 1924 to 1926. Glarner began to establish connections with representatives of the artistic avant-garde in Paris .

In 1928 he married the American Louise Wonsky Powell and took her on a study trip to the USA from 1930 to 1931, where he made first contacts with collectors and artists, in particular with Piet Mondrian and other representatives of the De Stijl group. Piet Mondrian had a great influence on Glarner's artistic work. In 1933 Glarner joined the Abstraction-Création group in Paris . He exhibited several times together with other artists in this group. In 1935 Glarner lived again for a short time in Zurich. In 1936 he emigrated to New York with his wife and became a US citizen in 1944.

Glarner was one of the leading representatives of Abstract Expressionism and is counted among the so-called Zurich Concrete . The artistic roots of this movement, in addition to the relationship with De Stijl, lie in the principles of the Bauhaus , where several artists had studied. Even Max Bill was one of the "Zurich Concrete" and Glarner held despite emigrating to America or intensive contact with him. Other concrete figures from Zurich were, for example, Richard Paul Lohse , Verena Loewensberg and Camille Graeser .

In 1936 Glarner took part in the exhibition "Time Problems in Swiss Painting and Sculpture" at the Kunsthaus Zurich . In 1937 he joined the allianz artists' association . In the US, Glarner still had to earn his living with portrait photography. He practiced his painting in parallel. From 1938 to 1944 he was a member of the "AAA" ( American Abstract Artists ). He had an intensive exchange of ideas with Piet Mondrian.

In the 1940s, Glarner found his own special “constructive-concrete” visual language. He called this image concept "Relational Painting".

In 1957 he moved to Huntington on Long Island with an apartment and studio . In New York he had also made large-scale murals, for example in the lobby of the Time & Life Building in 1958 and in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library in the UN headquarters in 1961 and the dining room ("Rockefeller Dining Room") from 1963-64 of Nelson Rockefeller's New York City Apartment. His painting was now internationally known. Glarner participated in documenta 1 in Kassel in 1955 and officially represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale in 1964 and 1968 .

After a serious accident in 1966 while on the return trip to America on the ship, he was barely able to practice painting. Five years later, in 1971, Glarner returned to Switzerland with his wife. He died a year later on September 18, 1972 in Locarno .

Exhibitions

  • 1936 "Time Problems in Swiss Painting and Sculpture" at the Kunsthaus Zurich
  • 1955 documenta 1 in Kassel
  • 1964/68 Venice Biennale
  • Original Rockefeller Dining Room , on permanent loan from the Paul Büchi Foundation Frauenfeld, in Haus Konstruktiv , EWZ-Unterwerk Selnau, Selnaustr. 25, 8001 Zurich

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Glarner, Fritz
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss-American painter
DATE OF BIRTH July 20, 1899
PLACE OF BIRTH Zurich
DATE OF DEATH September 18, 1972
Place of death Locarno