Ruth von Fischer

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Ruth von Fischer, 1995.
Durham , 1971. Watercolor / opaque white.
Tarasp Castle , from the east, 1987. Watercolor.
Southern European landscape, unnamed, 1998. Watercolor.
Gouache Zurich Central , July 2000. View over the Limmat towards the main train station.
Carpet Twelve Apostles , 1967. Made for the Predigerkirche Zurich, today in the Pfrundhaus in Zurich.
Detail from the carpet of the Twelve Apostles : the Lion of Mark. Both the contour-forming cords several millimeters thick and the over-stitching with individual thread stitches are clearly visible.
Detail from the carpet Twelve Apostles : Two Apostle Faces. Illustration of the technique of overstitching.

Ruth von Fischer (born February 20, 1911 in Meiringen as Mathilde Ruth Fischer , † September 26, 2009 in Zurich ) was a Swiss artist and drawing teacher. The largest number of her works are gouaches , watercolors , drawings in black felt pen and textile prints .

Ruth von Fischer became best known for 22 large-format textile applications , which were created between 1970 and 1989 as joint works, mainly for churches, but also for non-religious buildings such as retirement homes, schools and a hotel.

Life

childhood

Ruth von Fischer was the oldest of five siblings in a pastor's family in Meiringen in the Bernese Oberland . Her parents were Albert and Sara Fischer-Bäschlin. Albert Fischer came from the Bernese patrician family Fischer , her grandfather was the botanist Eduard Fischer , her great-grandfather the pharmacist and botanist Ludwig Fischer .

Her godmother Bertha von Fischer was a local artist and mainly painted watercolors of Bernese landscapes and houses. Ruth von Fischer often painted with her as a child and found an affection for drawing and painting at an early age.

In 1916 the family moved to Wichtrach , where the father continued to work as a pastor. After the early death of the father, it was impossible to stay in the Wichtrach rectory and the widow and her children moved to Altikofen near Worblaufen (now a district of Ittigen ), where the Gosteli Foundation is now located .

education

From 1927 to 1930 Ruth von Fischer trained as a primary school teacher in Bern . From 1930 to 1934 she trained as a drawing teacher at the Bern School of Applied Arts, combined with a longer study visit from 1932 to 1933 in Munich . She took the blazing at this time Nazism true at close range.

First job

Immediately after graduating, Ruth von Fischer found a full job as a drawing teacher, which at the time was rather an exception for a woman. She received this position at the New Girls School in Bern.

In 1936 Ruth von Fischer married Samuel Werner JeanRichard. There were three children from this marriage. In 1943 Ruth von Fischer supported her husband for a while in running a refugee camp in St-Cergue in the Vaudois Jura .

Her marriage was called Ruth JeanRichard and she signed her works accordingly. After the divorce in 1967, she called herself again Ruth von Fischer .

Beginnings of artistic activity

Ruth von Fischer created flower pictures in parallel to her first teaching position and devoted herself to peasant painting . Ruth von Fischer's artistic activity intensified in 1944 when she moved to Gontenbach in the Zurich municipality of Langnau am Albis . From 1946 Ruth von Fischer lived in the city of Zurich until her death.

Since 1950 she has developed her own technique of multi-colored linocut . Numerous wall hangings were created on behalf of the Swiss Heimatwerk .

A consultant and fatherly friend in this phase of life was the Russian exiled painter and illustrator Arthur Bryks , who worked in Ticino . In general, she received great inspiration for her artistic development from the expressionist Helen Dahm, who works in Zurich and is a good 20 years older than her .

Phase of the large tapestries

Ruth von Fischer created the first tapestry in 1964, the last in 1999. Her period of large tapestries, however, was from 1967 to approx. 1989. The architect Paul Hintermann, a restorer of numerous churches, played an important role as a mediator for new carpeting and from 1980 for glass paintings, while the painter and graphic artist Hermann Georg Plattner (1909–1997) was an important interlocutor and source of inspiration for this carpet work.

Stylistic development

Naturalistic representations played an important role in every phase of Ruth von Fischer's artistic work. There are numerous botanical studies and landscapes, but also village and street studies from all decades have photographic accuracy.

In the late 1960s, Ruth von Fischer tended more towards stylizations with generous areas of color.

Late work

In the painting of the late work, naive abstractions were given a strong weight. There were many still lifes with flowers, porcelain, toys, dolls, bears and thimbles. During this phase, special attention was paid to the intense colors red, orange, blue and green.

Ruth von Fischer painted and designed exhibitions until her death. Her last picture was taken on the penultimate day of her life.

Drawing teacher

In addition to her artistic work, Ruth von Fischer always taught as a drawing teacher. She held permanent posts at the Protestant Teachers' Seminar in Zurich Unterstrass (1944 to 1981), at the Free Evangelical School in Zurich-Waldmannstrasse (1946 to 1976) and at the seminar for working teachers in the Canton of Zurich (1962 to 1976). Further teaching assignments arose in adult education ( Gwatt , Bern Adult Education Center in Munich Wiler Castle ) and in the field of adventure travel.

In addition, Ruth von Fischer worked from 1967 to old age as a Sunday school teacher in the Zurich Grossmünster congregation , also in this role always in a pedagogical connection with drawing and painting.

techniques

Ruth von Fischer often devoted herself to linocut , watercolor , gouache and ink-like sketches with a black felt pen or ballpoint pen . Pencil and ink drawings, multi-colored felt-tip pen works (including washes ), collages and oil painting were somewhat less common .

Mixed techniques were often used, most often the combination of watercolor and black felt pen, often supplemented with opaque white .

While the collage, the fabric print and the fabric application mark epochs of artistic creation, the watercolor runs like a lifelong thread through the work of Ruth von Fischer. In doing so, she often used the technique of deliberate overpainting , both as a route from the draft to the final painting, and as a form of mixed media. Ruth von Fischer also transferred the effect of such overpainting into carpet design, where the fabric took on the role of the basic image and the embroidery thread took on the role of overpainting. With this, Ruth von Fischer achieved a movement between surfaces and lines in carpet design, a break in the sharp contours.

Ruth von Fischer was born left-handed . Throughout her life, she practiced handicraft and writing on the right, while drawing and painting on the left. In case of arm problems, for example in 2006 during convalescence after a broken arm, she temporarily switched to the right hand in painting. In class, she sometimes painted with both hands at the same time.

Sketch manuals

Since a trip to Sweden in 1955, Ruth von Fischer collected her loose sketches and had them bound as yearbooks, seamlessly until her death 54 years later. Initially these sketches were mostly in A4 , later in A5 format . Ruth von Fischer sketched a great deal. Her love of everyday detail and her penchant for careful observation is revealingly documented in these sketch manuals. A friend wrote about her:

“[Then] Ruth began to draw while driving. Simply everything: trucks whose exhaust fumes fogged us up and trucks that splattered our windows when we crossed, motorcyclists, curbs, high-voltage pylons, traffic lights, pedestrians, a house facade that was quickly caught, trees, landscapes. "

- Menga Ruprecht : Festschrift Ruth von Fischer on her 80th birthday , 1991

In total, a collection of 4,000 sketches in 60 volumes was created.

Motifs

In accordance with the aesthetic awareness lived by Ruth von Fischer, as is evident in the thematically wide-ranging sketchbooks, the thematic range of the larger works is also broad. Nevertheless, a few narrower topics emerge:

Ruth von Fischer painted many mountain and lake landscapes. Subjects from the Canton of Bern were particularly important. For example, Ruth von Fischer repeatedly worked on the Stockhorn chain . But other regions such as southern France or the Lower Engadine also played a prominent role. Flowers and animals were recurring subjects of the works through all phases of life, mostly depicted naturalistically in earlier decades, typically naively implemented in later works.

Ruth von Fischer shared a fascination for architecture with her father. Ruth von Fischer created many views of castles, churches and rural village scenes. But also less idyllic city situations with turbulent traffic, construction sites, power lines and cranes very often served her as objects.

Angels in general and Guardian Angels in particular have been a common motif since 1980 . Sketches, pictures and carpets with groups of people are common, but portraits are rare. In one of the few self-portraits she took at the age of 93, she saw herself as forty. Interestingly, especially in her youth, drawing people was of particular interest to her, especially drawing old women.

Textile applications

General

From 1964 to 1999, Ruth von Fischer created 29 tapestries using application technology, a floor carpet and a three-dimensional textile assemblage that went beyond mere application technology.

Most of the works were created for churches, old people's homes and schools. The textile assemblage was commissioned by the Hotel Palace in St. Moritz , few others are privately owned.

Two floor carpets are known, one was made for the Evangelical Reformed Church in Weiach and one for the Church of Stadel .

Beginnings

The Center International de la Tapisserie Ancienne et Moderne (CITAM) and the Musée cantonal des beaux-arts de Lausanne launched the Biennale internationale de la tapisserie Lausanne / Suisse in 1962 . In this context and based on a collage in an exhibition of GSMBK 1962 Ruth was of fishermen of the artistic direction of the Swiss National Exhibition , which also took place in Lausanne in 1964, invited to one of the twelve tapestries for the sector La terre et la forêt (dt . Field and forest ).

The medium was new and challenging for Ruth von Fischer, but not the process of creation: tapestries mean intensive teamwork, and because of her work as a teacher and adult educator, Ruth von Fischer was predestined for this cooperative approach. The team for this first tapestry was made up of former students from the Agricultural School in Winterthur-Wülflingen (today Strickhof Wülflingen ).

Size

A few of the carpets are smaller than a square meter, but most of them are significantly larger. At nine meters, the Twelve Apostles carpet is the widest. It was created in 1967 for the Predigerkirche in Zurich and has been hanging in the Pfrundhaus Zurich since 2008 . The carpet was Ruth von Fischer's first large carpet.

The largest area is the carpet The Great Supper from 1970 in Andelfingen ZH , 3.5 m high, 7.2 m wide and 25.2 square meters.

The size of the carpets often required thousands of hours of work that stretched over up to 18 months. A carpet required an average of 3500 hours of work.

The most complex was the creation of the Works of Mercy carpet from 1987 for the church of Urdorf . The 10 square meter carpet required 9,000 man hours.

The carpet with the second largest amount of work was the composition Die Reisen des Paulus for the Pauluskirche in Bern , with a documented 7034 working hours. The themes of this composition are: Paul in prison - Paul in the storm at sea - Paul in front of the Areopagus in Athens .

Teamwork

Most of the carpets were made with large teams. In the case of carpets for churches, for example, women from the parish, so-called embroidery women or carpet women, typically worked on the carpet according to the artist's instructions.

A total of up to 90 embroidery women were involved in a carpet, in shifts of up to 30 people.

Ruth von Fischer saw carpet work as a collaborative effort, but not as teamwork in the sense of an artistically open, group dynamic process or as teamwork based on the thesis “Everyone is an artist” by Joseph Beuys (1972ff). She understood the work to be created by her as an artist with the manual participation of the carpet women:

“The artistic director of such a company is not primus inter pares within the group. First and last, he is solely responsible for the work. "

- Susanne Kramer / Verena Eggmann : Five loaves and two fish

Nevertheless, numerous lively discussions naturally arose in the joint carpet work. Ruth von Fischer faced these artistic discussions and dealt with the points. This resulted in a general agreement of all those involved.

Working together on the artwork usually had a strong unifying effect among the carpet women. Many groups that actually only got together for carpet work lasted for years or decades beyond carpet work and dedicated themselves to new tasks within the local community.

Execution of carpets

First, Ruth von Fischer created a draft, typically on a scale of 1:10, often as a collage of different colored papers, some of which were painted with gouache. Based on this, a 1: 1 scale pattern was created, also made of paper.

Then, in dialogue with the Zurich weaver Regula Hahn, woolen fabrics of different colors were woven, the individual shapes were cut out and applied by the embroidery women on a linen base .

The woolen pieces, which initially appeared flat, were first supplemented by contour-forming cords and finally embroidered with yarn, sometimes tone on tone, sometimes deliberately in contrasting colors. These linear structures, which are also used for strength and cohesion, allowed a differentiated design of the transitions between the pieces of fabric.

With regard to the materials used, the sails and ropes carpet designed in 1971 for the Hotel Badrutt's Palace in St. Moritz is a specialty. Due to the robustness requested by the customer, rope pieces, frayed ropes, cork floats and old fishing nets were used in this work.

Exhibitions

  • 1957: Participation in the Swiss Exhibition for Applied Arts in Bern.
  • 1958: Participation in the Swiss Exhibition for Women's Work (SAFFA)
  • 1958–1974: Participation in society and section exhibitions ( Helmhaus , Züspa and others).
  • 1961: Rheinfelden and Berlin
  • 1992–2002: Participation in nine annual exhibitions at Villa Severini in Zollikon .
  • 1992–2008: Participation in ten Christmas and solo exhibitions at the Lyceum Club in Zurich.
  • 1993–2004: Various exhibitions in galleries, schools and in public spaces.
  • 2009: Memorial exhibition: sketchbooks, letters, memories.
  • 2012: Watercolors from Ruth von Fischer's artistic estate. Bodmer / Zurich.

Associations

  • 1958: Admission to the Society of Swiss Women Painters, Sculptors and Craftsmen (GSMB + K), today the Swiss Society of Women Artists. ( SGBK ).
  • 1976 Joined a society of Swiss painters, sculptors and architects. (GSMBA), today visarte .
  • 1986 Joined the arts section of the Zurich Lyceum Club .

Ruth von Fischer was a member of Soroptimist International .

Care and inheritance

The Friends of Ruth von Fischer were founded in 2010 . Part of the work is administered by the Gosteli Foundation based in Worblaufen / Ittigen , including sketches, drawings, fabric samples, the carpet diary as well as photos and slides of the works from the period from 1965 to 1991. These estate documents are therefore a remarkable coincidence the former Altikofer address of the young Ruth von Fischer.

Written works

  • Ruth von Fischer: From my life, the Twelve Apostles Carpet in the Predigerkirche Zurich . In: Heimatwerk sheets for folk art and craft. 33rd volume, No. 1, March 1968.
  • Ruth von Fischer: tapestry in joint effort . In: Schweiz, Suisse, Svizzera, Switzerland. No. 11, 1983, issue: Textiles .

Archives de la Mobilization

As part of the largest Swiss oral history project, Memories of the Second World War, organized by the Archimob association , the documentary filmmaker Theo Stich recorded a video interview with Ruth von Fischer as one of 555 contemporary witnesses on September 15, 2000.

literature

  • Anne Wanner-JeanRichard among others: Commemorative publication Ruth von Fischer for her 80th birthday . Self-published, La Chaux-de-Fonds 1991.
  • Friends of Ruth von Fischer (ed.): Sketchbooks, letters, memories. For the 100th birthday of the artist Ruth von Fischer. Edition G d'Encre. Le Locle 2011.

Web links

Commons : Ruth von Fischer  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. a b c d e f g h i j k Susanne Kramer and Verena Eggmann (1981). Five loaves of bread and two fish, Ruth von Fischer - art as a collective work . TVZ publishing house, Zurich, ISBN 978-3-290-11490-9 .
  2. Documentation of the Archimob video from September 15, 2000 ( memento of the original from January 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , accessed December 14, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archimob.ch
  3. Example of a JeanRichard signature, accessed on December 13, 2014.
  4. Overview of the tapestries under Annatextiles , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  5. ↑ Detailed information and pictures of the carpet market , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  6. Details and a picture of the Twelve Apostles carpet , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  7. ↑ Detailed information and pictures of the carpet The Great Supper , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  8. Median of the values ​​given under Anna Textiles . The effort required for individual carpets is not known.
  9. Proof of working hours: Anne Wanner (2007). Tapestry as a collective work, part II . Self-published.
  10. Details and images of the Works of Mercy carpet , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  11. Details and pictures of the carpet The Travels of Paul , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  12. For example: Clara Bodenmann-Ritter: Joseph Beuys. Everyone is an artist. Conversations at documenta 5/1972 . New edition. Ullstein, 1991, ISBN 3-548-34450-X .
  13. Examples ( Memento of the original from September 15, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of contour breaks due to over-sewing in the Evangelical Reformed parish of Buchen, accessed on December 18, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kirchebuchen.ch
  14. Details on carpet production , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  15. Details on the work Sails and Ropes , accessed on December 18, 2012.
  16. ^ Vernissage of the memorial exhibition on March 19, 2011, accessed on December 18, 2012.
  17. ^ Vernissage of the memorial exhibition on March 19, 2011, accessed on December 18, 2012.
  18. Sympathy rally ( memento of the original from March 4, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Soroptimist International, Club Zurich, accessed on December 18, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.soroptimist-zuerich.ch
  19. ^ Estate of Ruth von Fischer Archive on the History of the Swiss Women's Movement, Gosteli Foundation, accessed on August 3, 2016.
  20. Written summary ( memento of the original from January 25, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. of the Archimob video with Ruth von Fischer, accessed on December 18, 2012. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.archimob.ch