Roland Guignard

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Roland Guignard ( born April 8, 1917 in Aarau ; † January 13, 2004 in Rombach near Küttigen ) was a Swiss painter , graphic artist , illustrator , drawing teacher and glass painter .

life and work

Roland Guignard grew up with a brother and a sister in Aarau. His father, who came from the canton of Vaud , settled in Aarau as a homeopathic doctor in 1904 , his mother was the British pianist Ethel Mathews, who encouraged her children's musical talent. From 1933 to 1937 Guignard attended Ernst Keller's (1891–1968) graphic arts class at the Zurich School of Applied Arts , and then continued his education for six months at the Académie Ranson in Paris .

With the money he had earned for his decorative pictures for the Swiss National Exhibition in 1939 , he traveled to southern France for study purposes and to Italy in 1940 . Back in Switzerland he worked as a book illustrator and from 1941 as a substitute teacher for drawing lessons at the daughter's school in Aarau. As a postman, Guignard was often on foot and also had the opportunity to paint the landscapes of Central Switzerland and Jura .

After the war, Guignard was able to take on half a drawing teaching stint at the daughter's school and at the teachers' college in Aarau. This enabled him to undertake study trips and stays in France, Italy, Spain , Greece and England lasting several weeks every year .

Guignard was friends with Hans Fischer , Guido Fischer , Felix Hofmann and other Aargau artists of his time. In 1943 he joined the Aargau GSMBA and in the same year was able to show three pictures ( woodcutters , wheat harvesters and a self-portrait) at the Swiss GSMBA exhibition in Bern .

From 1962 Guignard also painted abstract pictures and, thanks to enough artistic commissions, quit school. Between 1968 and 1970 - triggered by the competition contract for the design of the eight Gothic glass windows in the Aarau city church - he made the step from representational to complete abstraction.

In 1984, 1985 and 1988 Guignard traveled to Japan . The three trips and years of preoccupation with the aesthetics of this country inspired him to do his later work.

Guignard took part in numerous solo and group exhibitions. Many of his works can be seen in public and semi-public spaces. Guignard was married to the art and literary critic Elise Heitz.

literature

  • Dorothea Christ : Measure and Fantasy - On the life and work of Roland Guignard. Aarau / Stuttgart 1978.
  • Richard Buser: Swiss Art Guide , Vol. 576. Ed. Society for Swiss Art History. Bern 1995, ISBN 3-85782-576-6 .
  • Annelise Zwez : Roland Guignard - painter of restrained dynamism . In: Aarauer Neujahrsblätter , Vol. 65, 1991, pp. 72–91. ( Digitized version )

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Family and years of apprenticeship
  2. ↑ Freelance artist
  3. ↑ Stained glass window «Praying Our Father» Aarau City Church.
  4. ↑ Fascination Japan.
  5. ↑ Solo and group exhibitions
  6. ^ Art in architecture
  7. ↑ family picture
personal data
SURNAME Guignard, Roland
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter, graphic artist, illustrator, drawing teacher and glass painter
DATE OF BIRTH April 8, 1917
PLACE OF BIRTH Aarau
DATE OF DEATH January 13, 2004
Place of death Rombach near Küttigen