Swiss Institute is proud to present the first solo show of Jean-Frédéric Schnyder (born 1945,
lives in Zug, Switzerland) in the United States. Despite his long and successful career the Swiss
artist has remained relatively unknown beyond European borders. At Swiss Institute Jean-
Frédéric Schnyder will exhibit a series of small format landscape paintings LANDSCHAFT I-XXXV
(1990/91) as well as the recent video installation Corso Schnapsparade (2009).
In 1969 legendary Swiss curator Harald Szeemann invited the 24-year old artist to participate in
the seminal group show When Attitudes Become Form at Kunsthalle Bern. Three years later
Szeemann also included him in Documenta 5 in Kassel. During this time Schnyder shifted from
object-based art to painting. As a self-taught artist he always envied painters for having a proper
job. “Coming home with rosy cheeks after painting en plein air makes you entirely happy,” states
the artist with a chuckle. But he also appreciates painting as a form of expression, which for
many people is a synonym for art.
For the series Wanderung (Hike) exhibited at the Venice Biennale 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. Schnyder knows how to challenge painting through
a conceptual approach and with ironic distance. He deliberately undermines traditional
positions with a tongue in cheek attitude.
At Swiss Institute, Schnyder exhibits Landschaft (Landscape) I-XXXV (1990/91) a typical
example of his vision of painting. After finding a subject, he usually examines every possibility in
his imagination without doing any preparatory drawings. The common denominator of this series
is the archetypal small house treated in 35 small-sized oil paintings. From the hut of Hansel and
Gretel to suburban architecture with a Swastika-lit sky, the modality of a small world is
investigated by painting. “I do not care which associations my paintings provoke. Swastika,
cruxifix and sugar cubes are just motives which are interesting to paint. To apply color—this is
what painting is about, right?—is for me the common thread.” Schnyder’s manifesto is purely
nonchalant, a balancing act between humor, kitsch and a persiflage about Western art.
Also on view is Corso Schnapsparade (Liquor Parade, 2009) an animated film featuring a highly
eccentric procession. Small wooden horses pull trailers loaded with miniature versions of Swiss
liquor bottles. The horses and trailers are cut in wood by Schnyder himself with painstaking
craftmanship. The scenery has a childish or almost naïve element that is instantly contradicted
by the presence of hard liquor. The soundtrack from the well-known film Sissy further enhances
the grandeur of the parade. Schnyder’s Liquor Parade at once celebrates and ridicules festival
culture and its rituals.
Solo exhibitions include Galerie Eva Presenhuber, Zurich (2010); Kunstmuseum Basel / Museum
für Gegenwartskunst Basel (2007); Centre Culturel Suisse Paris (2004); Ikon Gallery Birmingham
England (2002); Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt am Main (1993); Portikus, Frankfurt am
Main (1993); Biennale di Venezia/Swiss Pavillon, Venice, Italy (1993).
Curated by Gianni Jetzer
The exhibition has been made possible with public funds from Kanton Zug,
A catalogue will be published. Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Landscapes, 56 pages, 35 color plates,
hardcover, $20, ISBN 978-1-884692-10-9.
Please contact Piper Marshall for further information piper@swissinstitute.net
