Steivan Liun Koenz

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House in Scuol

Steivan Liun Könz (born October 30, 1940 in Samedan ; † April 24, 1998 in Chur ; resident in Guarda and Zurich) was a Swiss draftsman, etcher and sgraffito artist . He was the son of the author of the Schellenursli , Selina Chönz .

Life

His father was the architect, restorer and author Iachen Ulrich Könz (1899–1980), his mother the former kindergarten teacher and author Selina Chönz , who among other things wrote the Schellenursli . Steivan had four older half-brothers from his father's first marriage: Peider (* 1927), Iachen and Constant (both * 1929) and Andri (* 1933).

Steivan spent his childhood in Guarda , where he attended school from 1947 to 1953. Since his mother had wanted a girl, Steivan was put in girls' clothes as a toddler. As a (unrecognized) dyslexic and dreamy loner, Steivan had difficulties at school and was unable to meet the expectations of his mother. With severity and drastic measures, she tried to shape the "failure" in her own image; the relationship with his mother remained difficult throughout his life.

After primary school, Steivan lived with the secondary school teacher and writer Jon Semadeni in Scuol , who was friends with the family. He attended classes in his class for two years. Semadeni recognized his creative abilities and encouraged him in this regard as well. His father, who, as a restorer, provided numerous houses in Guarda with sgraffito, always included his sons in the work. Steivan was allowed to help out at the age of sixteen; three years later he designed his first work alone.

From 1956 to 1957 Steivan was in the boarding school in Kefikon Castle , then he passed the entrance exam for the arts and crafts school in Zurich. He shared a small two-room apartment with his half-brother Andri, who was studying psychology at the university and with whom he was most closely associated. In the preliminary course, which he attended twice, he was taught by the graphic artist and painter Hans Aeschbach (1911–1999). He volunteered to take additional courses in painting and drawing. In 1959 he entered the photography class, which he graduated with good grades in 1962. His thesis consisted of an alphabet for a children's book in which the letters of the ABC were represented as photographed food.

Steivan then worked for Josef Müller-Brockmann until April 1964 , when he was dismissed due to an incompatibility with an employee. He traveled to Italy with his father, then alone to the Azores .

Figure on a house in
Sur En

After his return, Könz tried again to get by as a freelance photographer. His mother, who feared he would become an unemployed artist, set up a studio for him in Adliswil in 1965 , which Koenz called a first-class prison . After traveling through Africa and Turkey, where he worked as a draftsman, he sold the photo studio in 1968. He moved into an apartment and a studio in Zurich's Seefeld and began to work as a freelance painter, draftsman, etcher and sgraffito artist. As one of his first works, he designed the facade of the National Park House in Zernez .

In 1970, Könz broke off his engagement with the music student Annalisa Spillmann, with whom he had been together since 1964, and entered into a relationship with the restorer Barbara Jenny, whom he married on September 16, 1972. The couple lived in the Triemli district in Zurich. At the beginning of the 1970s, Könz was able to present his work in several exhibitions, including in 1972 at the Züspa exhibition of Zurich artists. In 1974 he and his wife traveled to India in a VW bus set up as a caravan via Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Eastern Turkey, Persia and Afghanistan.

In 1976, Könz received the recognition award from the Canton of Graubünden. In the same year, the sgraffito work began in the village settlement on Dürrbach in Engelberg , which should keep him busy for eight years. This was followed by regular exhibitions in galleries, including on Trittligasse in Zurich.

In 1978 Steivan Könz moved with Barbara to Zurich- Unterstrass , where on November 13, 1979 their son Simon Andreia was born. The death of his father in December 1980 triggered a life crisis that lasted for several years.

In 1982 he separated from his wife Barbara, the divorce took place in 1985. In 1983 he returned from Zurich to Guarda, where after 1985 he lived in a shared apartment with the teacher and artist Dumeng Secchi and the shepherd and lumberjack Georg Lindner. Shortly thereafter, his mother bought him a part of the stable at house 86, which he converted into a spacious studio and lived in after 1988.

In September 1988 he met the pharmacist and budding astrologer Andrea Meier on a train ride, whom he married on February 17, 1989. Her son Mario Silvester was born on December 3rd, and daughter Fiona Annarella on April 13th, 1991.

After bladder problems first appeared in 1990, she was diagnosed with bladder cancer at the end of April 1997 after a two-month trip through Ethiopia . Steivan Liun Könz died after a two-week stay on April 24, 1998 at the age of 57 in the canton hospital in Chur .

plant

House of the little pelican on the Schipfe in Zurich

Steivan Liun Könz 'unmistakable murals can be found in numerous bathrooms and house facades far beyond Switzerland, such as in Bad Tölz . In the Engadin alone he painted around 100 houses . In the 1970s and 80s he often painted dragons, mythical creatures and mermaids, later his pictures became calmer and clearer. At the end he often painted mazes, at the end of which death waited.

In June 2011, Limmat Verlag Zürich published the first comprehensive monograph on the work of Steivan Liun Könz.

literature

  • Leza Dosch: CV of Steivan Liun Könz. In: Bündner monthly newspaper: Journal for Bündner Geschichte, Landeskunde and Baukultur , 2007, pp. 81–82 ( digitized version ).
  • Constant Könz, Barbara Könz, Andrea Könz: life dates, works and exhibitions, films about Steivan Liun Könz . In: Bündner monthly newspaper: Journal for Bündner Geschichte, Landeskunde and Baukultur , vol. 43, 2001, p. 54 ( digitized version ).
  • Kathrin Siegfried: Steivan Liun Könz - story painter and picture teller 1940–1998 ; Limmat Verlag, Zurich 2011 ISBN 978-3-85791-631-1

Web links

Commons : Steivan Liun Könz  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ He painted stories and told pictures. In: Tages-Anzeiger from July 2, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Koenz, Steivan Liun
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Swiss painter and draftsman
DATE OF BIRTH October 30, 1940
PLACE OF BIRTH Samedan
DATE OF DEATH April 24, 1998
Place of death Chur