FAMILI'ARS

A family exposition

Vernissage: Saturday, May 13 2023, 5–10pm

Finissage: Sunday, 2 July 2023, 16–20 h

Opening hours: 13 May 2023–2 July 2023, by appointment (076 331 66 77) or whenever the sign in front of the house indicates that the gallery is open.

Location: Gallery Artiz, Crêt-de-Fourmis 1, 2515 Prêles

The opening exhibition of the Artiz Gallery ...

... displays works by artists from the families of the hosts

Franziska Aschwanden (*1965, spouse of Beat Leuenberger)
Peter Gerber (*1966, galerist)
Hans Käppeli (1924–2021, great cousin and godfather of the gallerist Galeristen)
Beat Leuenberger (*1953, cousin of the gallerist)
Walter Schenk (1903–1986, great-uncle of the gallerist)
Gottfried Tritten (1923–2015, father of Sibylle Tritten)
Sibylle Tritten (*1962, gallerist)

The artists

Franziska Aschwanden

Franziska Aschwanden

«
Born 1965 in Cabimas, Venezuela
Grown up in Kirchdorf/AG
Schools in Obersiggenthal/AG
Commercial diploma Cantonal School Baden
1985 Language studies in Manchester Work on sculptor Henry Moore
1987 Training as a journalist, St. Gallen
1989 Solothurnerzeitung, reporter and press photographer
1994 Training in theatre and film production (acting and directing), EFAS Zurich
1996 Engagements: production assistance Theatre Spectacle Zurich, youth theater Scaramusch, Schaffhausen, and Theater Tuchlaube, Aarau
1997 Cultural Agenda Tourist Guide, Zurich 2010-2017 Stage design and co-direction of Christmas musical Sunday-School, Lenzburg
2012 Book project with Beat Leuenberger (monotypes and poetry)
2004-2020 Drawing and painting lessons in the Daniel Rehmer studio, Baden

Group exhibitions

2004 Zurich Central Station
2005 Barmelweid Clinic/AG
2009, 2010, 2012 and 2015 WISA GLORIA Lenzburg
2018 40th anniversary of the Lenzburg Cultural Commission in the city
2018 Art in the Centre for the Elderly (kia) Obere Mühle, Lenzburg
2015, 2017 and 2019 Wall design in public space, Lenzburg
2020, 2021 and 2022 Christmas exhibition Alte Bleiche, Lenzburg
»

Information by the artist

Peter Gerber

Peter Gerber

Born 1966 in Langenthal/BE
1985 Matura (natural sciences)
1986-1994 Studies in biology, psychology, philosophy, history of religion
1994 Master's degree in social psychology
1995 -2001 Further training in systemic counselling and addiction
1996 Basic journalistic training, Radio RaBe - Bern's cultural radio station
1999 Leadership training «Leadership as Art», cultural project at Altenberg, Bern
2005 Portfolio Certificate «Electronic Publisher Print», School of Design Bern and Biel
2001-2018 Sole proprietorship "Ars contexo" for integral services
Since 2019 Upcycling of a 250-year-old farmhouse in the Bernese Jura into a residential, gallery and artist's house
2023 Opening of the gallery «Artiz» in Prêles

Art is with me through my life.
For 40 years I have been concerned with the question of where human beings come from and where they are going, i.e. cultural anthropology in the broadest sense. This curiosity that drives me leads me spirally through the fields of science, art and spirituality to the thematic field of «magic», which for me represents the complex synthesis of these guiding cultural phenomena.
«Magic», then, as a cultural technique and not in the sense of esoteric or economised derivations of the term.
This is reflected in my pictorial work, which takes up and updates features of symbolism and fantastic realism.

Hans Käppeli

Hans Käppeli

1924–2021, Wynau/BE

«
Hans Käppeli was born on 8 February 1924 in Wynau at Feldstrasse 4.

Emma and Hans Käppeli-Grütter's marriage produced three sons: Werner, Willy and Hans. They lived in the smallest flat of this three-family house and Hans had to share a room with his 2 brothers. His grandfather Johann and his grandmother Karoline lived in the lowest and largest flat. The middle flat was occupied by his father's brother Fritz with his wife Frieda and his two daughters Trudi and Heidi (mother of the galerist).
Uncle Fritz owned a fabric shop, which he ran in the house.

His father was a skilled weaver and worked at the Gugelmann company in Roggwil. His grandfather was also a weaver and kept 3 cows and 2 pigs on the side. When Hans was 6 years old, his grandmother died and his grandfather gave up the farm. Hans' mother originally learned to be a carer, but since marriage she has been responsible for the household and the children. She cooked for all the residents in the house. So it often happened that up to 9 people sat at the table.

Hans attended school in Wynau and wanted to spend a year in the French-speaking part of Switzerland after finishing school. But his father objected.

As Hans already liked to draw at school and was very talented, he looked for an apprenticeship as a designer. But this training would have been in Zurich and much too expensive. So he went to see a career counsellor and he advised him to apply at the porcelain factory in Langenthal. Among 16 applicants, he got the apprenticeship.

In 1940 he began a three-year apprenticeship as a porcelain painter and then completed a second apprenticeship as an engraver, which lasted one year. Hans did not have much spare time. They had to work in the garden and on the fields and help with the household chores.

In 1948, his mother Emma, only 54 years old, died of cancer. Hans took over the entire household. His brothers were already married and no longer lived at home. He had promised his mother that after her death he would stay with his father and take care of him. He cycled to work in Langenthal every day. Three times a week he attended evening classes in drawing and typeface painting at the School of Applied Arts in Bern.

With a fellow artist, Hans visited Paris for a fortnight in 1949 and they painted subjects from the city and visited museums. Later he spent two weeks in occupied Vienna and here he also painted.

In 1950 Hans met his future wife Sophie. Sophie was a hairdresser in Wolfwil. A year later they married and moved into the newly built detached house on Bernstrasse in Wynau. Sophie ran her own hairdressing salon here. Hans had a ceramic kiln installed and was thus able to fire painted porcelain himself.

In 1956, their only child Elsbeth was born. She experienced a sheltered and happy childhood here in this house. Hans was a loving, caring, but also strict father. The little family has experienced many wonderful things together. Hans was a helpful husband and helped his wife in the household. He was a good cook and, when necessary, supported his "Söphelie" in her hairdressing salon. He mastered hair washing perfectly.

At the beginning of the 60s, Hans bought a VW Beetle. So he no longer had to cycle to work in Langenthal and was home earlier in the evening. In the meantime, he had been appointed plant manager of the decoration department in the porcelain factory and boss of about 200 employees. He had a lot of responsibility and was an understanding and correct boss who could offer his workers a lot professionally. Hans knew all the decor numbers by heart until he was very old. The porcelain factory had become a part of his life.

After his retirement, Hans continued to work with freelance commissions, such as wall plates with family coats of arms, diligence awards for clubs, artistic vases and much more.

Hans was the proud grandfather of Philippe and Karin and they can look back on beautiful unforgettable experiences together.

In 2005, his Sophie fell ill with cancer and died shortly before Christmas. From that time on, he lived alone in his house and remained true to his hobby, painting. He painted more oil paintings again. He proudly told his circle of acquaintances of over 185 oil paintings he had created, which could also be viewed and bought. In his old age, Hans was allowed to exhibit some of his works and valuable porcelain in the Spycher in Rütschelen and in the Langenthal Museum. The exhibitions were a great success and Hans appreciated the many visitors and the interest.

So that Hans could still live in his beloved family home, his daughter helped in the household and his son-in-law Paul in the garden. He was very grateful for that. Hans was interested in world affairs and read the daily newspaper in depth every morning.

In recent months, Hans had been experiencing health problems. He was struggling to walk and at the beginning of November, despite being fully vaccinated, he tested positive for Covid. In an emergency, his daughter drove him to Langenthal Hospital, where he succumbed to his serious illness after a one-day stay. He was allowed to fall asleep peacefully. We lose in him an outgoing and interesting narrator and "village chronicler" as well as a loving and valuable person. We will miss him very much.
»
This short biography was written by his daughter Elsbeth Würzer on the occasion of his death.

Beat Leuenberger

Beat Leuenberger

«
My life

Born and raised 1953 in Zofingen
Matura at the Old Cantonal School in Aarau
Medical studies at the University of Bern
Journalism training at the Media Training Centre (MAZ) in Kastanienbaum LU
Basel School of Design, winter semester 2021/22: "Lettering and Calligraphy" with Samuel Frey

Breadwinner as a science journalist for various print media until 2016.
Alongside artistic activity, since the beginning of 2017 full-time in a studio community with Franziska Aschwanden.
Since 2010 various joint exhibitions with Franziska Aschwanden.

My work

Never in my life have I done anything other than art.
I never succeed when I try hard. It falls to me.

The material for my works are the letters. From this I create word sculptures - my own art genre. At best, their plasticity arises in the minds of the viewers (if they stop in front of it).

The letters on the canvas want to please the viewer's eye – and they make words.

The statements of the word compositions should encourage the recipients to pause and listen to their murmur, rhythm and sound (if they stop in front of it).

Several words make sentences that express ideas and, in my understanding, draw attention to the conditions of human life.

A word sculpture is successful in my sense if it also makes all conceivable accompanying voices sound.
»

Information by the artist

Walter Schenk

Walter Schenk

Born 1903 in Roggwil, died 1986 in Wynau

«
He is a painter and a fine painter.

As a master painter with his own business in Roggwil, he swaps the coarse brush for a slightly finer one in his spare time.

Painting outdoors or in the studio means relaxation and joy to him. This is also reflected in his paintings.

Colours, shapes and style express a world that is close to life - and joyful.

He must stick to a firm line out of inner conviction.

Nevertheless, he does not condemn the modern direction either.

"Everybody gives what they have", he recently expressed, and with this he voiced a thought that is at the root of our exhibition.
»

Quoted from the brochure for the exhibition "Wynau painters exhibit" 1965 in the primary school building Wynau

Gottfried Tritten

Gottfried Tritten

«
Born 13. 12. 1923 at Lenk in the Simmental, died 15. 1. 2015 in Thun
Painter, draughtsman and art teacher. Stained glass and art on buildings
Gottfried Tritten grew up in the Bernese Oberland and attended Burgdorf grammar school from 1939 to 1943.
1943-1948 at the Basel School of Applied Arts with the teachers Georg Schmidt and Walter Bodmer; drawing teacher's diploma.
1948-1951 Studies at the Universities of Basel and Bern (art history, philosophy and psychology).
1950-1970 Teaching position at the teacher training college in Thun. Important for his artistic development are the discovery of landscape and various trips abroad, especially three stays in Morocco in 1951–1957 and a trip to Greece in 1959.
1955 Moved to Oberhofen on Lake Thun
1958 first publication on art education
1967 First exhibitions abroad: Paris, Brest and Lyon, followed by Lisbon and various cities in the USA 1970
1968 Meeting with Mark Tobey. Art educational study visit to the USA and Canada, where Tritten meets important artists of Action Painting and Pop Art (Richard Diebenkorn, Andy Warhol).
1968-1984 Lectureship at the Centre de Formation du Corps enseignant secondaire of the University of Bern
1974 Retrospective at the Thun Art Museum
1977 Relocation to Grimisuat (VS)
1992-1993 Retrospective at the Helsinki Art Museum
Further solo exhibitions (selection): 1987 Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Sion; 2003 Fondation Louis Moret, Martigny; 2009 Fondation Gianadda, Martigny.

Throughout his life, Tritten was committed to the promotion of contemporary art (founding of Club 57 in 1957, Biz'Art in 1985) and received various scholarships and cultural prizes: 1953 Federal Scholarship for Applied Art, 1986 Thun Culture Prize. 1985 Honorary doctorate from the University of Bern.

Tritten is considered one of the most respected Swiss pioneers of art education and outreach, also known abroad. He devoted the first part of his life mainly to pedagogy, the second entirely to painting. He has traversed many 20th century directions in his career and found a personal, powerful visual language. Thematically, the relationship of man to landscape predominates in the early work. Until 1955 figurative paintings with strongly moving motifs (landscape, animal, figure). 1954–1957 brief turn towards geometric abstraction. The works from 1958 to 1967, influenced by Abstract Expressionism, represent a gradual transition to gestural, lyrical abstraction and are characterised by great freedom (Aegina, 1965). Tritten explores the spatial effect of line and colour, first in black and white, then in monochrome images. In 1969 he began to introduce interchangeable elements into his paintings and reliefs, which always made new ways of looking possible (painting cycles Birth of Venus, 1973–1978, Mountain – Man – Painting, 1977–1986). Since the 1970s, confrontation of free rhythmic design with geometric elements, whereby Tritten arrives at a synthesis of pictorial means: painting, collage, decollage, drawing and especially writing (Der blaue Berg. Homage to Hölderlin, 1978–1982, Sion, Musée cantonal des beaux-arts). The cycle «Liebesbriefe von Bergen oder an Berge», 1988, consists of visions of inner landscapes in which the language of signs is expanded with calligraphic elements. Tritten increasingly turned to other techniques: mirror reliefs (Ondines, 1982, Ostermundigen, Bernische Kraftwerke), installations (Lux, 1989, Kraftwerke Sitten), stained glass (T, 1990, Sierre, chapel of the Sainte Claire Clinic). In the 1990s, he explored the nature of signs (T) and individual colours in series of works. His strongly internalised worldview, influenced by Taoist philosophy, comes to rest and move. Homage to Tao, 1991–92, and Homage au Bleu, 1994.

Works (selection): Lenk, church, glass paintings, 2005–2010; Sierre, chapel of the Sainte Claire Clinic, T, 1990, glass painting; Sion, Musée cantonal des beaux-arts; Thun, town hall, entrance hall, Tapisserie d'Aubusson, 1964–1965; Thun, regional hospital, sign, mirror relief; Sion power stations, Lux, 1989, installation; Sion, regional hospital, sign of love, 1983–85, installation.
»

Data from sikart.ch, Silvia Jörg, 1998, updated 2018

Sibylle Tritten

Sibylle Tritten

Born in 1962 in the Lindenhof Hospital in Bern.
As the daughter of Gottfried Tritten and Ursula Schärer (then Tritten).
The parents had connected through art: Tiz was a drawing teacher and my mother a budding dancer or rhythm teacher.
I was there in many teaching situations – learning to look, to feel, to develop.

After studying psychology and philosophy, I deepened all these interests and became a psychotherapist.

There was little time to live out my love of the creative and the visual in any other way than in reception.
That's why there are only a few pictures of me here.

Inner and outer images are – and will increasingly be – my philosophy of life in the future.