Dame im Kimono [Detail], 1912
Öl auf Leinwand / oil on canvas
141 x 85.5 cm
Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau / Depositum der Koch-Berner-Stiftung
© Nachlass / estate of Otto Wyler
Foto: Jörg Müller
The most beautiful pictures
Re-encountering Otto Wyler
18.09.2021 – 27.02.2022
Otto Wyler (1887–1965) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and graphic artist. Born to Jewish parents, he grew up in Aarau. The exhibition at the Museum Franz Gertsch focuses on about 70 paintings from the 1900s to the 1960s. It represents the opportunity to re-encounter this painter and to discover his own individual dealings with the artistic currents of his times. A broad overview emerges based on a selection of works ranging from portraits, nudes, still lifes and landscapes, as well as travel scenes from Morocco and France.
‘My most beautiful pictures are those I have never painted’, Otto Wyler once said (Guido Fischer, ‘Otto Wyler’, Neujahrsblatt Stadt Aarau, 1966, p. 46). The Museum Franz Gertsch is showing a large-scale solo exhibition featuring a selection of the most beautiful pictures that Wyler had indeed painted.
Organised in collaboration with the artist's descendants, the Aargauer Kunsthaus and the collector Carlo Mettauer as its principal lenders, the exhibition focuses on a selection of about seventy paintings from the 1900s to the 1960s, especially his portraits, nudes, still lifes and winter landscapes of the 1910s. Further emphasis is placed on works from two trips to Morocco in the 1930s. Rougher landscapes start dominating his work in the 1950s. Wyler painted his final pictures prior to his death in 1965. For the artist, trees embodied ‘the vitality of humanity and the essence of beauty’. (Gil Goldfine, ‘Otto Wyler 1887-1965’, ex. cat Mishkan Le’Omanut Museum of Art, Ein Harod, 2013, p. 14.)
Educated in German and French painting style, Otto Wyler spent years working in the tension field between Late and Post-Impressionism, Japonism and Art Nouveau, Symbolism up to and including the art of the Nabis, the Fauves and the Expressionists. Hodler, Amiet and Cézanne were not without influence. The exhibition offers the opportunity to re-encounter this painter and to discover his own individual dealings with these artists and styles of painting.
A comprehensive picture of his art emerges from a look at his works ranging from portraits, nudes, still lifes and landscapes, as well as travel scenes from Morocco and France. Wyler, who often still produced his landscapes ‘en plein air’, connects his native Aargau with the distance of his frequent travel destinations in his paintings. Tradition and modernity come together in his works, in which over the course of many years he repeatedly redefined the treatment and use of colour and form, contour and surface.
The exhibition at the Museum Franz Gertsch is the first extensive presentation of Otto Wyler's works since the Aarau exhibition celebrating his 100th birthday in 1987. After his death in 1965, retrospectives were held in Aarau and Neuchâtel, and a solo exhibition was shown in 2013 at the Mishkan Le’Omanut Museum of Art, Ein Harod, Israel. The year 2021 will see two Otto Wyler exhibitions in Switzerland. Running concurrently with the show in Burgdorf, a four-generation exhibition will go on view at Kunsthaus Zofingen (21 August – 24 October 2021): Otto Wyler's works will be presented in conjunction with the autonomous oeuvres of his youngest daughter Lotti Fellner, grandson Tom Fellner and great-granddaughter Anne Fellner.
Otto Wyler (b. 30 March 1887 in Mumpf; d. 18 March 1965 in Aarau) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and graphic artist. Born to Jewish parents, he grew up in Aarau. 1904–1906 technical school for decorative painting and drawing at the cantonal industrial museum, 1906/07 painting school of Heinrich Knirr in Munich, 1907–1908 studies in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts with Fernand Cormon, Jacques-Émile Blanche and Charles Cottet.
The exhibition was curated by Anna Wesle in collaboration with Beat Wismer. Anna M. Schafroth was initially planned as our guest curator, but she regrettably passed away on 10 January 2021. However, she did prepare the conceptual foundations on which we were able to build the exhibition.
The Otto Wyler Archive is supported and administered by Yehuda R. Sprecher, Tel Aviv, Israel and Wolfgang Straub, Bern, Switzerland.
To the website
A catalogue featuring essays by Patricia Bieder and Gil Goldfine will be published by modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br.
‘My most beautiful pictures are those I have never painted’, Otto Wyler once said (Guido Fischer, ‘Otto Wyler’, Neujahrsblatt Stadt Aarau, 1966, p. 46). The Museum Franz Gertsch is showing a large-scale solo exhibition featuring a selection of the most beautiful pictures that Wyler had indeed painted.
Organised in collaboration with the artist's descendants, the Aargauer Kunsthaus and the collector Carlo Mettauer as its principal lenders, the exhibition focuses on a selection of about seventy paintings from the 1900s to the 1960s, especially his portraits, nudes, still lifes and winter landscapes of the 1910s. Further emphasis is placed on works from two trips to Morocco in the 1930s. Rougher landscapes start dominating his work in the 1950s. Wyler painted his final pictures prior to his death in 1965. For the artist, trees embodied ‘the vitality of humanity and the essence of beauty’. (Gil Goldfine, ‘Otto Wyler 1887-1965’, ex. cat Mishkan Le’Omanut Museum of Art, Ein Harod, 2013, p. 14.)
Educated in German and French painting style, Otto Wyler spent years working in the tension field between Late and Post-Impressionism, Japonism and Art Nouveau, Symbolism up to and including the art of the Nabis, the Fauves and the Expressionists. Hodler, Amiet and Cézanne were not without influence. The exhibition offers the opportunity to re-encounter this painter and to discover his own individual dealings with these artists and styles of painting.
A comprehensive picture of his art emerges from a look at his works ranging from portraits, nudes, still lifes and landscapes, as well as travel scenes from Morocco and France. Wyler, who often still produced his landscapes ‘en plein air’, connects his native Aargau with the distance of his frequent travel destinations in his paintings. Tradition and modernity come together in his works, in which over the course of many years he repeatedly redefined the treatment and use of colour and form, contour and surface.
The exhibition at the Museum Franz Gertsch is the first extensive presentation of Otto Wyler's works since the Aarau exhibition celebrating his 100th birthday in 1987. After his death in 1965, retrospectives were held in Aarau and Neuchâtel, and a solo exhibition was shown in 2013 at the Mishkan Le’Omanut Museum of Art, Ein Harod, Israel. The year 2021 will see two Otto Wyler exhibitions in Switzerland. Running concurrently with the show in Burgdorf, a four-generation exhibition will go on view at Kunsthaus Zofingen (21 August – 24 October 2021): Otto Wyler's works will be presented in conjunction with the autonomous oeuvres of his youngest daughter Lotti Fellner, grandson Tom Fellner and great-granddaughter Anne Fellner.
Otto Wyler (b. 30 March 1887 in Mumpf; d. 18 March 1965 in Aarau) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and graphic artist. Born to Jewish parents, he grew up in Aarau. 1904–1906 technical school for decorative painting and drawing at the cantonal industrial museum, 1906/07 painting school of Heinrich Knirr in Munich, 1907–1908 studies in Paris at the École des Beaux-Arts with Fernand Cormon, Jacques-Émile Blanche and Charles Cottet.
The exhibition was curated by Anna Wesle in collaboration with Beat Wismer. Anna M. Schafroth was initially planned as our guest curator, but she regrettably passed away on 10 January 2021. However, she did prepare the conceptual foundations on which we were able to build the exhibition.
The Otto Wyler Archive is supported and administered by Yehuda R. Sprecher, Tel Aviv, Israel and Wolfgang Straub, Bern, Switzerland.
To the website
A catalogue featuring essays by Patricia Bieder and Gil Goldfine will be published by modo Verlag, Freiburg i. Br.
Works
