ARTISTS

Hans von Matt was a Swiss painter, sculptor, art writer and cultural politician from Central Switzerland. He was the son of the bookseller, editor, Landammann and National Councilor Hans von Matt and Marie von Matt-Odermatt. In 1918, after dropping out of high school, he joined Joseph von Moos' class at the Lucerne School of Applied Arts and in 1919 he attended the École des Beaux-Arts with David Estoppey and James Vibert in Geneva. This was followed by studies at the art academy in Munich from 1921 to 1923. He then stayed in Florence and Paris and took courses with André Lhote. In Florence he was greatly impressed by the art of Sandro Botticelli and maintained contacts with the artists Kurt Seligmann and Alberto Giacometti. From 1921 Hans von Matt worked in Stans, from 1927 in his own studio, as a painter and later as a sculptor. In 1935 he married the artist Annemarie von Matt b. Gunz, who became his model for several portraits. From 1939 onwards, Hans von Matt wrote works on local history and folklore topics, as well as monographs on central Swiss personalities. In 1927 he became a member of the Swiss Werkbund and in 1958 the vice-president of the Kunstgesellschaft Luzern. From 1941 to 1953 he was a member of the Federal Art Commission, of which he was vice-president from 1949 to 1953. From 1944 to 1953 he was the founder and member of the Swiss St. Luke Society for the Promotion of Church Art. Between 1947–1957 he was President of the Art and Nature Conservation Commission of the Canton of Nidwalden and from 1947 to 1974 an important member of the Nidwalden Historical Association and museum curator. Hans von Matt's career began in Geneva and Munich, initially in an expressionist direction. Influenced by the cubist foundations of André Lhote in Paris and Karl Geiser, von Matt developed clear and compact forms. His figures of young women and saints show gentle facial expressions and soft body shapes. The human bodies that were portrayed this way until 1961 showed particular and elongated proportions. His vocation for contemporary religious sculpture brought him many commissions for churches and tombs all over northern Switzerland. With the passing of the years he shifted his work increasingly into smaller bronzes and terracotta figures. From 1961 Hans von Matt began to deal with the abstractions of Jean Arp, Henri Laurens and Henry Moore. His figures no longer appeared in a closed form, but were defined by openings and curved lines.