Albert Neuenschwander
Born in 1902.
Died in 1984.
From canvas to façade, Albert Neuenschwander sets painting in circulation between the space of the picture and that of the city. Several works preserved or catalogued by institutions make it possible to approach his career through this diversity of scales and supports.
In Bern, the municipal heritage inventory records a 1941 mural in Building I of the vocational school on Lorrainestrasse. It places his work within a major architectural ensemble of Bernese modernism. In 1952, Neuenschwander once again intervened in the built environment with a large mosaic intended for the entrance to the Schosshalde electrical substation.
Composed of majolica slabs and glazed bricks and executed by Kohler Keramik in Biel-Mett, it accompanies the functional volumes of this facility. Here, colour becomes architectural matter and engages the gaze of the passer-by.
The painting nevertheless retains its place in his œuvre. The Foundation for Art, Culture and History lists Das Briger Fenster, a large-format oil on canvas with no precise date. Its title, “The Brigue Window,” provides another point of entry into the Swiss geography of his work.
In 2022, its presence in the group exhibition Blumen in Vasen at Kunsthaus Glarus also recalled his engagement with the genre of the floral still life.
These points of reference invite us to discover Neuenschwander by bringing his mobile works into proximity with works tied to a particular place. They reveal an artist whose practice participates equally in the intimacy of looking and in the everyday experience of architecture.
