Mily Dür

Mily Dür (born January 3, 1921 in Burgdorf BE ; † September 21, 2016 in Zumikon ) was a Swiss painter , draftsman , writer and poet .

Life

Mily Dür's father Ernst Dür died when she was eight years old. In 1934 the mother married for the second time and moved from Burgdorf to Zurich . In the following, Zurich remained Mily Dürs' center of life. At the age of sixteen she was accepted into the graphics class at the Zurich School of Applied Arts. Her career aspiration was an artist. However, there was no art academy in German-speaking Switzerland. The directors Alfred Altherr Senior (until 1938) and Johannes Itten (1938–1954) were aware of this deficiency, and they found ways to supplement the training, which was oriented towards commercial goals, so that basic artistic training could also be provided. Mily Dür's teachers were recognized artists such as Ernst Gubler and Max Gubler , Otto Morach , Heinrich Müller, Franz Fischer , Ernst Georg Rüegg and Walter Roshardt. She was able to use the content of the lessons specific to commercial graphics when she accepted a position in the graphics studio of Lindt & Sprüngli in 1943 . 1947 marriage to the lawyer Karl Hartmann. In 1952 and 1953 Mily Dür and her husband spent the summer in Paris, where they got to know French post-war art and existentialist ways of life. In 1959 the family of four moved from Zurich to Zumikon, where Mily Dür lived until her death. Due to her strong inner connection to nature, she became a vegetarian as a teenager and saw herself as a "green" throughout her life.

Since 1968 she was a member of the Society of Swiss Visual Artists (GSBK, formerly GSMBK), from 2001 of Visarte , the Professional Association of Authors of Switzerland (AdS), the Association of Zurich Writers (ZSV), the Free German Association of Authors and the Society for contemporary poetry and the German Haiku Society .

Create

Since childhood, writing has been on an equal footing with drawing and painting. She was a "Femmes de lettres", a well-educated woman who was not only well versed in the arts and their history, but also dealt intensively with psychology (including CG Jung ), with philosophy (including Jean Gebser ), the Science and ecology. This networked knowledge flowed into her poetic and visual work. The imagery is strongly influenced by the early encounter with non-representational French painting. To create a beautiful picture, a beautiful drawing or a melodious poem was never enough for her. A work of art also had to draw the sum of the rational and emotional consciousness. She often used symbols that could be interpreted as symbols such as lattice, labyrinth, spiral and eye, often in multi-layered interwoven picture compositions rich in color contrast. Interweaving as a connection between everything and metamorphoses as a concept of further development are themes that run through her work. Dür positioned himself artistically as a supporter of the ecological movement and was close to the 1968 riots in Zurich, took part in the “Zurich Manifesto”, a group led by Max Frisch , Gottfried Honegger and his friend, writer and politician Doris Morf . Your pictures become more city-related and more exciting. In later years she increasingly turned to life-philosophy topics and the connection between humans and nature and the cosmos.

Publications (selection)

• Light reflections. Graphikum-Verlag , Göttingen 1983
• Shadow trail. Adonia-Verlag , Zurich 1988
• On bright nights. Graphikum-Verlag, Göttingen 1991
• The wing trees. Graphikum-Verlag, Göttingen 1994
• Metamorphoses. Graphikum-Verlag, Göttingen 1999
• Tide. Lyric Texts and Haiku Senryu Tanka. Rauhreif Verlag, Zurich 2004
• Mily Dür pictures, drawings, poetry. With articles by Peter Killer, Mario Andreotti and Mily Dür. vadoni, Wetzikon 2002, ISBN 3-9522592-1-7 .

Solo exhibitions (E) and group exhibitions (selection)

• 1958: Lyceum, Zurich (E)
• 1958: Kunstverein, Konstanz: Réveil
• 1959: Helmhaus and Stadthaus, Zurich: Zurich artists
• 1959: Saffa, Zurich
• 1960: Art Museum, Lucerne, GSMBK
• 1961: Palais de Beaux-Arts, Paris
• 1961, 1964, 1979: Kunstmuseum, Winterthur
• 1961: Strauhof, Zurich: Réveil
• 1961, 1964: Zurich City Hall: word and image
• 1961: Glarus Art Museum: Réveil
• 1962: Kunsthaus, Aarau
• 1962, 1967, 1972, 1976, 1979, 1980, 1981: Kunsthaus, Zurich, GSMBK
• 1963, 1974: AABA, Ascona
• 1964: Galerie im Tenn, Illnau (E)
• 1964: Swiss National Exhibition Expo Lausanne, in the sector created by Max Bill
• 1964: Kunsthaus, Bern
• 1964, 1969: Galerie Beno, Zurich (E)
• 1965: Castle, Meersburg
• 1967: Meersburg: Painting poets, poet painters from three countries
• 1968, 1970: Kunsthalle, Basel, GSMBK
• 1969: Claire Brambach Gallery, Basel
• 1970: Helmhaus, Zurich: Illusions
• 1971: Sigristenkeller, Bülach (E)
• 1971: Musée Rath, Geneva, GSMBA
• 1973: Berlin, GSMBK: Gedok
• 1974: International Cultural Center for Youth, Jerusalem, GSMBK
• 1975: Lycée de Suisse, Lausanne: Concours Féminin des Beaux-Arts
• 1976: Biennale, Lausanne, GSMBA
• 1977: Galerie Internationale, New York
• 1978: Galerie Suisse, Paris, GSMBK
• 1979: Art Museum, Winterthur
• 1979: Museum Allerheiligen, Schaffhausen
• 1980: Galerie Europa am Dom, Munich (E)
• 1980: Galerie Götz, Stuttgart (E)
• 1982: Galerie am Ring, Cologne
• 1983: Galerie Roswitha Benkert, Küsnacht
• 1984: Basler and Partner, Zurich (E)
• 1995, 1996, 1997, 1999–2002: Lyceum, Zurich
• 2002: Art in architecture on the Frankfurter Welle, installation Flusseinsichten, Frankfurt a. M.
• 2005: Galerie Claudine Hohl, with Rosemarie Winteler, Ursula Brüngger, Maja von Rotz

Movie

• Women shapes colors. By Jens Peter Rövekamp. Documentation about Ursula Brüngger, Mily Dür, Maja von Rotz and Rosemarie Winteler. DVD 43 min, 2005, RoevekampFILM GmbH

Web links

• Literature by and about Mily Dür in the catalog of the German National Library
• You, Mily. In: Sikart
• Mily Dür on the website of the Swiss Society of Female Artists