ART CITIES:N.York-Jean Frédéric Schnyder

Born in Basel in 1945, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder spent his youth in an orphanage in Bern. During 1962-1965, he learnt photography as an apprentice in Wengen. In 1993 he represented Switzerland at the Venice Biennale with 119 tiny, mostly sunny scenes of the nation’s highway system, invariably painted from its overpasses, both updating and undermining his country’s pastoral stereotype.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Eva Presenhuber Gallery

The core of “Am Thunersee 1-3”, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder’s solo exhibition at Eva Presenhuber Gallery in New York are 38 small-sized paintings from the 1995 cycle “am Thunersee 1-38”. In 1970-71, after contributing to the legendary “When Attitudes Become Form” exhibition curated by Harald Szeemann at the Kunsthalle Bern in 1968, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder made his first ventures into the field of painting. Three years later Harald Szeemann also included him in “Documenta 5” in Kassel.  With no studio to work from at the time, the artist had no option but to strap his easel to his back and take to his bicycle, day after day, painting 106 motifs from Bern and the surrounding area in the style of plein-air painting. For the series “Wanderung” exhibited at the Swiss Pavilion at the 45th Venice Biennial in 1993, he hiked along the entire Swiss national highway from East to West and painted 119 vistas of the traffic, portraying Switzerland in a previously unseen manner. For the 38 paintings of the cycle “am Thunersee 1-38” the artist strapped his easel to his back and hiked day after day, painting motifs from Lake Thun area. Sometimes the mountain almost stands out; sometimes it’s enveloped in clouds. It is the meteorological, atmospheric and energy conditions that change in each painting. With Schnyder we alternate between the presence and absence of the ‘ideal’ painterly moment. The act of painting itself is the only constant. The exhibition expands on the lower exhibition level with paintings, sculptures and lynocuts from the late 1970s to the late 1990s presenting a comprehensive view on the work of Schnyder.

Info: Eva Presenhuber Gallery, 39 Great Jones Street, New York, Duration: 13/1-10/3/18, Days & Hours: Wed-Sat 11:00-18:00, sun 12:00-18:00, www.presenhuber.com