Totoro and a Satch Spray Day

We went along to a Satch (Swiss creator of all things to do with rucksacks and pencil cases) Spray Day at Büro Schoch in Marktgasse in Winti yesterday. My daughter Poppy had saved up her pocket money to spend 20fr – yes, 20fr – on a Satch pencil case and have it personalised for free by an in-store ‘graffiti artist’ I do find 20fr a little pricey for a pencil case but, as is always the case, if my children want to spend their own money on something creative then I am a big softy.

So we seated ourselves at the artist’s bench yesterday morning and rifled through examples of his previous artwork for ideas. We were a little uninspired by what was there but fortunately we had a few ideas of our own, downloaded on t’internet, mainly focused on Totoro, our favourite ever Studio Ghibli movie character. I showed the artist an example on my phone, which he took out of my hand, gave a nod (he was a man of very few words) and got on with the job in hand.

Poppy was very pleased with the result and can’t wait to show it off at school. Best of all, it didn’t cost me a penny, a rare and welcome treat these days J

Switzerland's first National Reading Day

Reading aloud to your children is a wonderful thing. It is one of my favourite times of the day when I snuggle up in bed with my daughter, now 8, and read to her. My 11-year-old often she comes to lie across the end of the bed to listen.

On Wednesday (May 23) the first National Reading Day takes place throughout Switzerland. This will be a day when many events will take place in communities small and large.

Winterthur’s libraries will also be taking part. There will be two special events taking place on the day at all seven libraries around the city:

• Between 2pm and 4pm, there will be a special games and stories session, with zvieri, for children aged between 5 and 9 years.
• Between 6pm and 7pm, the entire city council has made themselves available for reading aloud in the seven libraries to middle school and high school students.as follows:

•  Stadtbibliothek - City councilor Yvonne Beutler
• Hegi - City Councilor Jürg Altwegg
• Oberwinterthur - Mayor Michael Künzle
• Seen - City Councilor Stefan Fritschi
•  Töss - City Councilor Barbara Günthard-Maier
• Veltheim - Councilor Nicolas Galladé
• Wülflingen - Councilor Josef Lisibach

More details on the Stadtbibliothek website.

National Reading Day in Switzerland website.

100 year anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler

Die Nacht, 1890

Today marks 100 years since the death of Ferdinand Hodler, probably the most recognised Swiss painter of today.

Hodler (14^th March 1853 – 19^th May 1918) was hailed as helping to revitalise monumental wall painting and his work was thought to embody the ‘Swiss federal identity’ Many of his best-known paintings are scenes in which characters are engaged in everyday activities, such as the famous woodcutter (Der Holzfäller, 1910, Musée d'Orsay, Paris). In 1908, the Swiss National Bank commissioned Hodler to create two designs for new paper currency. His designs were controversial: rather than portraits of famous men, Hodler chose to depict a woodcutter (for the 50 Swiss Franc bank note) and a reaper (for the 100 Franc note)

Winterthur Kunstmuseum features many of Hodler’s works in the main collection and includes works such as Die Empfindung (1908) and Der Redner, Studie zur Einmütigkeit (1913) in the current Ferdinand Hodler – AlbertoGiacometti. An Encounter.

Der Redner, Studie zur Einmütigkeit (1913)

He was born in Bern, the eldest of six children. By the time he was eight years old, he had lost his father and two younger brothers to tuberculosis. His mother remarried to a decorative painter named Gottlieb Schüpach who had five children from a previous marriage and the birth of more children brought the size of Hodler's family to thirteen.

The family was poor, and nine-year-old Hodler was put to work assisting his stepfather in painting signs and other commercial projects. After the death of his mother from tuberculosis in 1867, Hodler was sent to Thun to apprentice with a local painter, Ferdinand Sommer where he learned the craft of painting conventional Alpine landscapes, typically copied from prints, which he sold in shops and to tourists.

At the age of 18, Hodler travelled on foot more than 160km to Geneva to start his career as a painter. He later travelled to Basel where he studied the paintings of Hans Holbein - especially Dead Christ in the Tomb – and Madrid in 1878 to study the masters such as Titian, Poussin, and Velázquez at the Museo del Prado.

The works of Hodler's early artwork consisted of landscapes, figure compositions, and portraits, treated with a vigorous realism and in the last decade of the nineteenth century his work evolved to combine influences from symbolism and art nouveau. His turning point was the creation of Night in 1890 which created a scandal at the Beaux-Arts exhibition in Geneva a year later. However, a few months later, it was exhibited in Paris at the Salon where it attracted favourable attention and was championed by Rodin.

Die Empfindung (1908)

Hodler developed a style he called ‘parallelism’ that emphasized the symmetry and rhythm he believed formed the basis of human society. In paintings such as The Chosen One (1893), groupings of figures are symmetrically arranged in poses suggesting ritual or dance. Hodler thought of woman as embodying the desire for harmony with nature, while a child represented innocence and vitality.

After several divorces Hodler met Valentine Godé-Darel in 1908 who became his mistress. She was diagnosed with cancer in 1913, and the many hours Hodler spent by her bedside resulted in a remarkable series of paintings documenting her decline from the disease. Some of these are currently being exhibited in the Ferdinand Hodler – Alberto Giacometti. AnEncounter exhibition at Winterthur Kunstmuseum. Valentine’s  death in 1915 affected Hodler greatly and he died just three years later.

Winterthur Kunstmuseum website.

Mother's Day at the museum

Portrait d'Annette, 1964, Alberto Giacometti

I had the perfect Mother’s Day present yesterday – a whole morning to myself to spend at the local art gallery. Not that I don’t love my little tykes to bits, but I do get to spend every day with them and free time is a coveted and very rare thing indeed, as every mother knows. It was also the perfect day for a visit to a gallery as it was also International Museum Tag (although in the UK it isn’t actually until 18^th) which means free admission.

I went along to the Ferdinand Hodler – Alberto Giacometti. An Encounter exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur, hailed as the first time ever that the two great Swiss artists have been featured in a joint exhibition. It is easy to see why, as at first glimpse they are poles apart – Hodler with his strange painterly depictions of repetitive figures on grand canvases and Giacometti with his squished heads and sculptured forms (a friend of his once said that if Giacometti decided to sculpt you, ‘he would make your head look like the blade of a knife’)

But the curators had worked hard at finding several parallels, such as the representation of groups of figures, studies of the Swiss mountain peaks and a particularly touching room featuring the artists’ lover and mother.

Giacometti was born at the beginning of the 20^th century (10 October 1901) and Hodler was born much later in 1853 (14^th March) although funnily enough, both artists died at the age of 65.

Selbstportrat mit Stehkragen, 1879, Hodler

The first room contrasts the artistic giants’ two self portraits cleverly – I mistook them for each other’s work! The Giacommeti painting looked to me just like Hodler’s work and the Hodler self portrait was how I imagined Giacommeti would have looked when younger. My favourite by far was the Hodler self portrait. It was astonishing - so feverish and haunting - he looked like a man possessed - and so unlike any work I have seen of his before. I attempted to catch this in a quick sketch – see below.

The next room featured the groups of figures. I liked the contrast in this room – each piece of Hodler’s work was accompanied by a piece of Giacommeti’s featuring a group of similar proportions – Hodler’s monumental paintings of characters moving in a kind of harmony, contrasted splendidly with Giacommeti’s tiny, isolated figures detached from the world around it. Then there was the collection of alpine paintings, which to me seemed to have a similar approach for the two artists, my favourite here was the one by Giacometti – see below.

The most penetrating and poignant room featured a host of work by Hodler depicting his model and lover Valentine Godé-Darel – once alive and smiling and the rest of her on her deathbed (due to cancer) just two years later. A heartfelt reminder of how quickly we can lose our loved ones. Giacometti’s portrait of his mother (see above) is just as revealing, as her  wavering head disappears into the grey ether surrounding it.

I just made a couple of sketches - quite unusual for me, as I often leave an exhibition with a notebook brimming with pencil drawings, but those two sketches were telling – the two pieces of work and two people who, for me, had the greatest impact.

Ferdinand Hodler – Alberto Giacometti. An Encounter runs until 19^th August. Admission 19fr. opening hours Tuesday 10am – 8pm, Weds until Sunday 10am - 5pm and Monday closed.

Monte del Forno, um 1923, Alberto Giacometti

Portrait de Diego sur socle, 1959, Alberto Giacometti

Valentine Godé-Darel auf dem Totenbett, 1915, Ferdinand Hodler