Lithograph (signed)
h64 x w80cm
Edition of 100

Hans Erni (1909-2015) was a Swiss painter, illustrator, engraver, sculptor and graphic designer best known for his illustrated postage stamps, his lithographs for the Swiss Red Cross, his participation on the Olympic Committee as well as his activism.

Born in Lucerne, the third of eight siblings, he studied art at the Académie Julian in Paris and later in Berlin, initially greatly influenced by artists such as Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque.

His first major public success was a mural titled Switzerland: ‘Vacation Land of the People’, commissioned and displayed for the national exhibition in Zürich – one of several murals that Erni completed over his long and distinguished career, including works for the 1980 Salon international de l’automobile, Red Cross, IOC, United Nations and ICAO. He designed over 300 posters, illustrated nearly 200 books and created 90 postage stamps and 25 medals. In the 1940s, Erni designed the artwork for Swiss bank notes (although, because of the artist’s communist leanings, it was decided that, despite the notes having already been printed, they should never be published). He also made ceramics, as well as costumes and sets for the theatre.

Erni began to experiment with abstraction in the 1930s. He was enlisted as a soldier in the Swiss Army from 1940 to 1945, and was engaged as a camouflage painter because of his experience with large-size murals. In 1948, he competed in the Summer Olympics’ painting competitions, and between 1950 and 1952, participated in exhibitions in Latin America. Erni was very interested in sport and received the United States Sports Academy award of sport artist of the year in 1989.

In 2004, Erni was awarded the honorary citizenship of the city of Lucerne and, in 2009, he received the Swiss Award for lifetime accomplishment. The Hans Erni Museum, situated in the grounds of the Swiss Museum of Transport in Lucerne, was opened in 1979, containing a large collection of his artwork and a 30-metre-long mural that the artists realised for the Museum.

Erni died in 2015 at the age of 106. He was widely exhibited in his lifetime and his work is held in a number of major museums worldwide, including the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco.