'Couple Embracing' by Hans Erni, Liebespaar Kuscheln, Modernist Grisaille Aquatint Etching

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Description

Signed lower right, 'Erni' within a dove for Hans Erni (Swiss, 1909-2015) and created circa 1980. An unnumbered presentation impression … Read more Signed lower right, 'Erni' within a dove for Hans Erni (Swiss, 1909-2015) and created circa 1980. An unnumbered presentation impression outside the standard edition of 100. Inscribed along the lower right margin, 'Cordialement pour Michel' (With best wishes to Michel).
Etching with aquatint printed on laid paper with partial maker's watermark.
Paper dimensions: 25.5 H x 19.75 W inches

Erni attended the Kunstgewerbeschule in Lucerne (1927-28) and subsequently studied in Paris, at the Académie Julian (1928-29), and Berlin, at the School of Applied Arts (1929-30). In Paris, Erni was a pupil of Derain and Braque and came into contact with artists including Henry Moore, Piet Mondrian and Constantin Brâncuși. In 1934 he joined the artist's group Abstraction-Création in Paris, where he also met Hans Arp, Alexander Calder, and Wassily Kandinsky. He was a founding member of the Allianz Association in 1937.

Erni continued to travel throughout Europe and, from 1950 onwards, expanded his travels to include Africa. He exhibited widely and with success including at the Kunstmuseum Lucerne (1950), Swiss National Exhibition in Zurich (1939), Basel (1935), Chicago (1951), Rotterdam (1946), New Delhi, Funabashi and Milan (Triennale, 1936). A prolific artist, Erni maintained a studio in Paris while also living and keeping a studio in Zurich. Familiar with fresco and print techniques, Erni also completed murals and created a large body of lithographs, etchings, illustrations, advertising and political posters. He was the recipient of numerous prizes, including the UN Peace Medal Award.

Claude Roy said of the artist:
"He depicts everything that jeopardizes the already precise promises of its general empire. He speaks of love and joyful lightness, labor and wise gravity, beautiful women and laughing children, submissive and noble beasts, conquered mountains and tamed torrents, a populated sky and an earth embraced by man. Man, so weak, so destitute, so admirable."

Reference:
E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 5, page 162; Vollmer Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler des 20. Jarhhunderts, Hans Vollmer, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 2, page 51; et al. See less