Painting: The outstanding masters at the turn of the century were F. Hodler, the innovator of monumental wall painting, and F. Vallotton, French by choice from Lausanne. More bold than his contemporaries in terms of color and detail, he gave a critical picture of his bourgeois environment. C. Amiet and G. Giacometti were close to the Pont-Aven school. Also R. Auberjonois was based on the French Post-Impressionists. Alice Bailly is considered to be the most important exponent of Cubism in Switzerland, while Le Corbusier initiated purism as a painter in the 1920s. More like the Stuttgart district of Adolf Hölzel (* 1853, † 1932) was close to O. Meyer-Amden, who created a work of poignant intensity. Paul Klee had a great influence on the development of modern painting. Albert Müller (* 1897, † 1926) and Hermann Scherer (* 1893, † 1953) developed a painting of expressive charisma in confrontation with E. L. Kirchner, who had been in Davos since 1918.
The Dada movement started in Zurich in 1916. In the same year the Swiss Sophie Taeuber-Arp composed her first abstract pictures. Meret Oppenheim, K. Seligmann and M. von Moos made independent contributions in the Surrealists’ environment. A. Dietrich, N. Stoecklin and François Barraud (* 1899, † 1934) are among the numerous important representatives of magical realism and the New Objectivity in Switzerland.
Representatives of concrete art founded the Allianz group in 1937. M. Bill, L. Leuppi, C. Graeser, Verena Loewensberg, R. Lohse, W. Bodmer and H. Fischli. J. Itten joined v. a. as an art teacher and color theorist. The artists of the 20th century committed to the tradition of representational painting include É. Vallet, H. Pellegrini and M. Barraud. H. Erni and H. Fischer, like T. A. Steinlen in the 19th century, BC a. Achieved significant achievements as a graphic designer and illustrator. In the 1950s, informal painting was among others. R. Iseli and W. Moser. The work of A. Thomkins (v. A. Drawings) is characterized by dada and surrealist elements. F. Gertsch works with the methods of photo realism. A figurative painting in the style of the Neue Wilde represents inter alia. M. Disler.
Sculpture and object art: modern Swiss sculpture received important impulses from H. Haller. Other sculptors who have also found recognition beyond national borders are C. Burckhardt, A. Zschokke, K. Geiser and – all outstanding – Alberto Giacometti. With abstract sculptures were H. Aeschbacher and the preferred metal-working sculptor W. Linck, Robert Mueller, B. Luginbühl and v. a. J. Tinguely. Of decisive importance for the artistic development of Tinguely and also of D. Spoerriwas the connection to Nouveau Réalisme, from which D. Roth, who was active in both the artistic and literary fields, received important suggestions. F. Eggenschwiler and M. Raetz ‘s fields of work include not only sculpture and object art, but also painting and graphics. A. Thomkins and Roman Signer (* 1938) are close to the Fluxus movement and action art.
Swiss art of the 1980s and 90s owes its name to “Young Swiss Art” to some artists who drew attention to themselves on the international art scene. The artist couple Fischli & Weiss, the concept artist and exhibition organizer Rémy Zaugg (* 1943, † 2005), the postmodern sculptor J. M. Armleder and the abstract painter H. Federle deserve special mention. The color broach N. Toroni, Olivier Mosset (1944) and Adrian Schiess (* 1959) in the form of reduced work. The gestural abstraction is represented by Pia Fries (* 1955) and Josef Herzog (* 1939, † 1998). Silvia Bächli (* 1956), Guido Nussbaum (* 1948) and Rolf Winnewisser (* 1949) cultivate conceptual-figurative painting. Well-known representatives of committed art by women are Miriam Cahn and Manon (* 1946). V. a. Artists from German-speaking Switzerland, such as Barbara Hée (* 1957), Josef Felix Müller (* 1955) and Klaudia Schifferle (* 1955). In the field of sculptural room installation, Thomas Hirschhorn (* 1957), Carmen Perrin (* 1953) and Urs Frei (* 1958) are particularlyto mention. Without accusation, the artist Sylvie Fleury (* 1961) deals with consumer goods. The pioneers of video and multimedia art include: Muriel Olesen (* 1948), Gérald Minkoff (* 1937, † 2009) and Silvie (* 1935) and Chérif Defraoui (* 1932, † 1994). Anna Winteler (* 1954), Muda Mathis (* 1959) and Pipilotti Rist deal with the performative quality of new media.
Photography: The beginning of the 20th century also developed in Switzerland. Photography is a documentary conception that deals particularly with people in a changing, often rural society (Gotthard Schuh [* 1897, † 1969], Hermann Stauder [* 1887, † 1949], Ernst Brunner [* 1901, † 1979]) or with a region (Paul Senn [* 1901, † 1953]). In the 1920s, photography experienced a heyday thanks to the illustrated press. In 1922 the CJ Bucher Verlag published the first periodical for professional photographers and amateurs, which later became known under the name “Camera”. The publisher also held the 1952 World Photography Exhibition in Lucerne. When Hans Finsler (* 1891, † 1972) was appointed to the Zurich School of Applied Arts in 1932, the To enforce a new objectivity in Switzerland too. Born in Switzerland, Robert Frank became the most famous representative of this style in the USA. Also M. Bill and the Swiss. Magnum photographers Herbert Matter (* 1907, † 1984), Werner Bischof (* 1916, † 1953), Ernst Scheidegger (* 1923, † 2016; portraits by A. Giacometti), René Burri (* 1933, † 2014) stand for the matter-of-fact style. In current photography, the accessible, mounted panoramas by Matthias Taugwalder (* 1981) are particularly sensational. Michel Comte (* 1954) is noteworthy in current fashion photography and Romano Riedo (* 1957) in reportage photography. Balthasar Burkhard (* 1944, † 2010), Hannah Villiger (* 1951, † 1977) and Cécile Wick (* 1954) address time and body in their photographic works. Well-known artist-photographers / videographers are Annelies Strba (* 1947), Simone Kappeler (* 1952), Hans Danuser (* 1953), Beat Streuli (* 1957),
Architecture: the most important Swiss. Early 20th Century Architects, Le Corbusie r (Maison Clarté in Geneva, 1930–32) and the later Bauhaus director Hannes Meyer (Freidorf settlement in Muttenz, 1919–21), were mainly active abroad. Young modern architects rallied around the magazine “ABC” by Mart Stam and Emil Roth. KC Moser’s Antoniuskirche in Basel is the first prominent exposed concrete building (1925–27). Modern building ideas began to spread in Switzerland with the Neubühl settlement near Zurich (1930–32). OR Salvisberg was the representative of a more moderate modern age (Bleicherhof in Zurich, 1939-40), which enjoyed greater acceptance. After 1945 the »Solothurn School« (Fritz Haller: Ingenieurschule Brugg-Windisch, 1964–66) took up the model of L. Mies van der Rohe. Le Corbusier’s “Béton Brut”, on the other hand, influenced M. Bill, A. Roth and the architects from Atelier 5. The church was built by WM Sponsors shaped. With the Ticino School (Ticino architecture) of the 1970s, there was a turn away from modernity towards a more historically reflective, locally shaped architecture that took up the theories of A. Rossi. Mario Botta and Luigi Snozzi (* 1932, † 2020; Parliament building, Vaduz, 1987 ff.; Casa Bernasconi, Carona, Canton Ticino, 1988/89), Livio Vacchini (* 1933, † 2007; architecture school, Nancy, 1993–96) and Aurelio Galfetti (* 1936; Tennis Club, Bellinzona, 1982–85) were important representatives. Vincent Mangeat’s (* 1941) work mediates between the Ticino School and the architecture that has dominated German-speaking Switzerland since the 1990s, and which has increasingly resorted to functionalist and minimalist forms of construction since the 1980s. Here, from Rossi’s theories, primarily the urban scale and the question of the historical context (Diener & Diener: Housing complex Hammerstrasse in Basel, 1979–81, Swiss Embassy in Berlin) or the building types (Bétrix & Consolascio: Gewerbehaus Uster, 1981–82) received.
Theo Hotz (* 1928, † 2018), on the other hand, looked for more technical solutions in his facades constructed from individual elements (bookbindery in Mönchaltorf, 1983-85). In the following years the interest in the emotional values of surface materials increased. Two swiss. Architects’ offices that dealt intensively with this topic won the Pritzker Prize: Herzog & de Meuron and P. Zumthor are the best-known Swiss in the early 21st century. Architects. Furthermore, Gigon / Guyer, Giorla & Trautmann, Camenzind Evolution, Bearth & Deplazes, EM2N and »Meili, Peter« deserve attention in the current development. A specialty of the Swiss. Modern is the unbroken engagement with the chalet type of construction (Zumthor, RB.CH Architects, Charles Pictet).
