CUNO AMIET 1868-1961

Painter, illustrator, sculptor and graphic artist, Cuno Amiet is a pioneer of modern painting in Switzerland. From 1884, he worked alongside the painter Frank Buchser before studying at the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich where he befriended Giovanni Giacometti. Together, they attended classes at the Julian Academy in Paris from 1889 to 1892, then Cuno Amiet decided to move to Pont-Aven in Brittany where he stayed for a year.
There he met post-impressionist artists such as Paul Gauguin, Emile Bernard and Paul Sérusier and also discovered the works of Cézanne and Van Gogh. Back in Switzerland in 1893, marked by these various influences, he opened his studio.
Gradually developing his own style, the artist presented his first personal exhibition in 1905 at the Künstlerhaus in Zurich and attracted the attention of German expressionists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmid-Rottluff, members of the Die Brücke group, of which Cuno Amiet was a member until its dissolution in 1913.
In the course of his life, Cuno Amiet painted more than 4,000 works. Mainly known for his landscapes with bright colours and expressionist brushstrokes, his work later became more abstract and he was interested in the study of space and light. He also began experimenting with sculpture in the 1920s, creating busts in bronze and marble.
Today, his works can be found in major institutions around the world, including the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland.