HANS ERNI (1909–2015)

This Swiss artist, graphic designer, and illustrator Hans Erni died last Saturday, reports the AP Press in Berlin via The Guardian.

Born in Lucerne in 1909, Erni studied art in Paris and Berlin and was strongly influenced then by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. His first breakthrough success was a large public mural titled Switzerland, Vacation Land of the People, which was commissioned for the 1939 national exhibition in Zurich. In his graphic work, he designed more than ninety stamps for Switzerland, Liechtenstein, and the United Nations.

Erni also worked in painting, sculpture, lithography, engraving, etching, and ceramics. In his eighties, he completed a series of paintings for the International Olympic Committee and also painted a fresco at a church in Saint-Paul-de-Vence in southern France, where he owned a house. The Hans Erni Museum in Lucerne contains a large collection of his work, including theater costumes and sets.