Wilhelm Schmid (painter)

Wilhelm Schmid ( born February 7, 1892 in Remigen, † December 1, 1971 in Bre near Lugano ) was a Swiss painter who is associated with the New Objectivity and the Magic Realism.

Life and work

Wilhelm Schmid is a painter with a remarkable fate. His life bears witness to the search for a link between Italian, German and French imagery. The painter was a major exponent of the cultural and artistic movement New Objectivity, which has sprung up in the 1920s, before the advent of National Socialism in Germany. At that derives from Expressionism flow include painters such as Otto Dix, George Grosz and Christian Schad. Although Wilhelm Schmid belonged to this movement, but more romantic and less aggressive tone than his colleagues. He was followed by a poetic current inspired by the small things of daily use.

Born in 1892 in Remigen in Brugg, emigrated in 1912 via Italy to Berlin and caught there with spectacular images quite a stir. In 1918 he was co-founder of the legendary November Group, in which the "revolutionary spirit " merged ( It included artists such as Otto Dix, Wassily Kandinsky and Rudolf Belling on ). As early as 1923 appeared on the artist, a monograph, in which about his " Pierrot Lunaires " or musician pictures like " Puccini Butterfly" (both now owned by the city of Lugano ), the "Mona Luna" (now in the Aargau Kunsthaus ), early landscapes as well as individual Still life were mapped. The painter, in a self-stylization described himself as a " Swiss and Bauer", was considered young hope of the Arts and received major support from critics such interest. In 1924, he moved to France. Until 1928, he worked mainly in Paris and southern France, with occasional excursions to Italy. His art struck now quieter, clean tones. In 1930 he returned to Berlin, and again subjected to his pictures the attention. Partly influenced by French Surrealism, he painted pictures of " Le Duel " and other " Headless ". As the political climate turned into Germany, he was regarded as " degenerate." With his Jewish wife Maria Schmid- Metz, a singer, he had to go back to Switzerland. He went in the Ticino Bre - Aldesago into an "inner emigration ". The integration in the Swiss art scene failed. His last big painting "The Heliand " (La Cena, now owned by the Confederation ) was transferred here in 1946 deemed too offensive.