Peter von Wattenwyl
Born in 1942.
Died in 2014.
Peter von Wattenwyl (1942–2014) was an artist whose career, as documented in the available records, connected places as different as Bern, Crete and the Camargue.
After his father’s early death, he left secondary school before completing the Matura and devoted himself to painting. In his early twenties, he lived for a time in Crete and later spent long periods in the Camargue.
His first public exhibitions took place in Bern in 1966, where he exhibited alongside Meret Oppenheim. In 1969, Jean-Christophe Ammann invited him to the event Die Kunst der Abseitigen at the Kunstmuseum Luzern. Despite recommendations and international offers, he notably declined a recommendation from Jean Tinguely for a project at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
Professionally, he exhibited regularly with the gallery owners Martin Krebs and Maxe Sommer over several decades. He also undertook private and public commissions, including portraits and works for the Schulhaus Kleefeld in Bern, the Universitären Psychiatrischen Dienste Bern (UPD) and a shopping centre in Schönbühl.
Die Mobiliar holds at least two works dated 1993: a sculpture that he dedicated to his third wife and the gouache entitled Die Verhandlung.
On a personal level, he loved the music of the Gitanes of southern France and attended the pilgrimage to Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer—interests that are an extension of his stays in the Mediterranean region.
