ERNI Hans

Hans ERNI, born on February 21, 1909 in Lucerne where he died on March 21, 2015, was a Swiss painter, graphic artist, engraver, and illustrator.

He started an apprenticeship in a topography office and then worked as a building draftsman in his youth at the architect Friedrich Felder's office. In 1927, he joined the Lucerne School of Art. By 1928, he went to Paris to study at the Académie Julian where he received an award. A year later, he traveled to Berlin and other European cities. There, he met Kandinsky, Mondrian, and many others. His influences were clearly cubist through Braque and Picasso. In the late 1930s, he made several trips to London where he discovered abstract movements. From 1930 to 1934, he worked under the pseudonym François Grèque. He joined the Abstraction-Création group and in 1937-1938, in London, he met and became friends with Henry Moore, Ben Nicholson, Barbara Hepworth, and the German Bauhaus emigrants.

Hans Erni by Erling Mandelmann (1967).

It was only after the war that his genius emerged with numerous paintings and exhibitions. Erni worked in several studios scattered throughout Europe. He became famous for creating a fresco for the Swiss National Exhibition of 1939 in Zurich. He participated in the creation of the Swiss Alliance, a group of Swiss artists.

He created frescoes, a form of expression he always appreciated. Erni was also the originator of many stamps for the Swiss PTT (Post, Telegraph, and Telephone), Pro Juventute organization, Liechtenstein, and the UN. On July 1, 1979, the museum bearing his name opened in Lucerne near the Swiss Transport Museum. In 1989, Erni received an award for his sports-related works from the United States Sports Academy in Daphne, Alabama. In 1992, Erni painted the portrait of the UN Secretary-General, Javier Pérez de Cuéllar, which is displayed in the UN building in New York. The UN, in a way, acted as a patron since many of Erni's works were commissioned by the organization.

Cirque Knie, fountain in Duftrosengarten in Rapperswil.

Right part of Hans Erni's fresco on the wall of the United Nations Palace, on the side of Place des Nations in Geneva.

Erni is a very popular painter in Switzerland. His talent extends beyond painting to sculpture and engraving. His unique style, with distinct outlines marked by a white line, plump yet faithfully represented characters alongside animals, has made him famous. Science, history, and mythology are recurring themes, his paintings depict the contrast between antiquity, the contemporary world, and civilizations. Numerous exhibitions have been dedicated to him, both in Switzerland and Europe.

Although still active, he died on March 21, 2015 in his birth city, at the Hirslanden St-Anna clinic.