Hans Erni

Hans Erni studied in Lucerne, Paris and Berlin. He later married his colleague Gertrude Bohnert and was the brother-in-law of the track and field Olympian Walter Strebi. He was known for his mosaics and graphics, which were often characterized by geometric lines and influenced by antiquity. His daughter Simone (*1946) also became a recognized artist. In his youth he was an avid sportsman (hockey, ski jumping and cross country). Initially, he was trained as a surveyor and worked as an architectural draftsman. When his striking talent for drawing became obvious, he attended the Kunstgewerbeschule (Arts and Crafts School) Luzern in 1927-28. He completed his studies in Paris - at the Académie Julian - and in Berlin. From 1932-34 he lived in Paris, where he was influenced by Braque and Picasso and met artists like Kandinsky, Mondrian and Henry Moore. There, he ran a second studio for several decades in addition to the one in Luzern.

Later, Erni worked as a painter, sculptor, graphic artist and ceramist. He created about 90 stamp issues for the Swiss post office, the United Nations, and for Liechtenstein, and illustrated about 200 non-fiction books, encyclopedias and literary works. Because he was a follower of Marxism, he had problems in the 1940s with being accepted in Switzerland. In the 1950s, he made several trips around the world. After the suppression of the Hungarian Revolution in 1956, however, he dissociated himself from Marxism and became more concerned with ecological themes. One of the most popular Swiss artists, in his home town of Lucerne, he was accorded his own museum. He was 106 years old when he died in 2015.

In 1944, a new edition of the Olympiques by the Roman poet Pindar with illustrations by Hans Erni was published in Lausanne in a limited edition of only 318 copies. Each copy was signed by the artist and the publisher. The edition was created to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the revival of the Olympic Games. The ten sheets in the format 20 x 26.5 cm and the 164 pages were garnered in a folder. The studies for murals, referred to in the catalog as Turner I und II (Gymnast I and II), are probably the paintings Athlete and Two Athletes, created in 1948. Erni produced them in tempera on paper in the format of about 130 x 100 cm. However, it is unclear why they were assigned to the arts and crafts section of the 1948 Art Competitions. For unknown reasons, his participation is not mentioned in the Swiss report on the country’s participation in the London Olympics.