Lilly Keller
Lilly Keller , also Lilly Keller-Grieb (born February 19, 1929 in Muri bei Bern ; † January 2, 2018 in Thusis ), was a Swiss artist .
Life
Keller grew up as one of four siblings in middle-class circumstances in Muri and first attended a private school, later the girls' school and then a teacher training college. In 1949 she secretly applied to the Zurich School of Applied Arts to study graphics and was accepted by Johannes Itten . Three years later she broke off her training and from then on worked as a freelance artist.
In 1954, Keller returned to Bern, where she made contacts with Daniel Spoerri , Meret Oppenheim , Friedrich Kuhn , Peter von Wattenwyl and Leonardo Bezzola . In 1955 she met Sam Francis , who was living in Bern at the time and who had a strong influence and support. Long stays in New York and London followed. In 1962 she married the artist Toni Grieb and moved with him to an old mill in Cudrefin in the canton of Vaud. At the end of the 1970s, Keller traveled a lot: in 1976/77 she moved to Persia, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, and in 1977/78 to Egypt. From 2000 Lilly Keller also lived in Thusis. In 2014, Swiss television dedicated the film Il faut cultiver son jardin to her in the Sternstunden art series .
plant
From 1953 on, Keller mainly worked with textile materials and techniques. The first tapestries are stylistically oriented towards Informel and sewn from fabrics. After initially figurative work, she soon turned to geometric shapes. In 1984 she discovered the material glass for herself and realized several glass sculptures in which she also used glass and wood. Polyurethane and polyester were later added as materials and she developed reliefs that fill the room . In collaboration with Andres Bosshard, she also integrated sound as an element in her room installations. From 1991, site-specific interventions increasingly moved into the center of Lilly Keller's work. In his later work, nature and landscape gained great importance.
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1962: Biennale de la Tapisserie , Lausanne
- 1969: Fantastic figuration , Helmhaus Zurich
- 1980: Room installation in the Kunsthalle Bern
- 1987: Solo exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bern
- 2011: Retrospective at the Kunsthaus Grenchen
- 2017/18: Bündner Kunstmuseum , Chur
Awards
In 1961 she received the prize for lithography from the Louise Aeschlimann Foundation.
literature
- Andreas Bellasi, Ursula Riederer: Lilly Keller. The life. The work . Benteli, Bern 2010
- Fredi Lerch: Lilly Keller. Artist - A literary portrait . Vexer, St. Gallen 2015
- Lilly Keller. Work from decades . Edition Z, Chur 2016
Web links
- Lilly Keller's website
- Bern artist Lilly Keller has passed away. SRF, January 4, 2018.
- Christoph Reichenau: Lilly Keller's life and art. in: Journal B, June 11, 2015.
- Fredi Lerch: To the death of an underrated. In: Journal B, January 4, 2018
- Publications by and about Lilly Keller in the Helveticat catalog of the Swiss National Library
- The artist Lilly Keller - Cultiver son jardin Sternstunde Kunst, June 14, 2015
Individual evidence
- ↑ Lilly Keller is dead , suedostschweiz.ch, January 4, 2018, accessed on January 5, 2018
- ↑ a b c Lilly Keller . In: General Artist Lexicon . The visual artists of all times and peoples (AKL). Volume 80, de Gruyter, Berlin 2014, ISBN 978-3-11-023185-4 , p. 25.
- ↑ a b Annelise Zwez: Keller, Lilly. In: Sikart (status: 1998), accessed on January 5, 2018.
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Keller, Lilly |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Keller-Grieb, Lilly |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | Swiss artist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | February 19, 1929 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Muri near Bern |
| DATE OF DEATH | 2nd January 2018 |
| Place of death | Thusis |