Franz Fedier

Trained as a painter under Otto Kälin in Brugg (1938–1941), he continued his studies at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Lucerne (1941–1945) — where he was notably a pupil of Max von Moos — and worked as a pupil and collaborator of Heinrich Danioth on mural commissions, including the Landi agricultural pavilion (1939) and a work for the Eidgenössische Alkoholverwaltung in Bern (1949). After settling in Bern in 1945 and working as a draughtsman at the Arel advertising studio, he furthered his training in Paris (Académie de la Grande Chaumière, Stanley William Hayter’s Atelier 17) and attended courses with Fernand Léger, working alternately in Bern and Paris between 1956 and 1963.

His public commissions include an early mural painting for the PTT in Altdorf (1952), a painting for Café Loeb in Bern (1957, now destroyed) and, in 1970, a car-park painting in Zurich, Sonneggstrasse 55 (destroyed). Later, he created a ceiling painting for Bern’s old main post office (1995) and, in 2003, painted three façades for the Loftpark in Altdorf, a work on which he was assisted by his son Marco.

Alongside his practice, he headed the painting class at the Basel School of Design from 1966 to 1987, then served as president of the Federal Art Commission between 1987 and 1992.

Originally from Silenen (canton of Uri), he was the eldest of four brothers, the son of Marta Civelli and Franz Fedier senior; in 1954, he married Doris Tschannen and was the father of at least two sons, Renato (1955) and Marco (1960).

For the centenary of his birth in 2022, a documentary film, a catalogue of the paintings on canvas and a book of unpublished texts were published, and a retrospective was presented at the Haus für Kunst Uri in Altdorf.