Lill Tschudi - Spanischer Tänzer

Lill Tschudi (1911 - 2004)
'Spanish Dancer' 1960 ballpoint pen on firm paper, monogrammed "LT." lower left 30.5X18cm Provenance: The artist's family. Reference literature: Lill Tschudi - Your art has many faces, Martina Schiller, Baeschlin, Glarus 2015, full-page illustration on page 92 (ill. 72) see photo Reference prices: see photo
Lill Tschudi's fascination with linocuts was triggered during her school days by the technical virtuosity and the intensively colored and rhythmically composed linocuts of the Viennese artist Norbertine Bresslern-Roth. Tschudi received her training in this medium and in watercolor from 1929 to 1930 at the Grosvenor School of Modern Art in London with Claude Flight and Edith Lawrence. From 1931 to 1933 she attended courses with André Lhote and Gino Severini at the Académie Ranson and with Fernand Léger at the Académie Moderne in Paris for two months a year. In the years that followed, further study trips to France, Holland and Italy followed. In Great Britain, the USA and Australia, Tschudi was already a valued artist and represented with works in museums in the 1930s, while she remained unknown in Switzerland for a long time. In 1935 Lill Tschudi returned to Switzerland and lived alternately in Zurich and in her grandparents' house in Schwanden, to which she permanently moved in 1940 and where she remained until her death. In 1981 she was awarded the culture prize of the municipality of Schwanden, in 1986 the prize of the foundation for graphic arts in Switzerland and in 1991 the Glarner art prize.
The early works with an illustrative character, which were based on Art Deco graphics, are characterized by a sweeping, ornamental structure of the surface and the choice of bold details and perspectives. The bold colors result from the side-by-side and superimposed printing of three to four lino blocks. Scenes from modern city life (London buses, 1949; Le long des quais, 1949), Glarner customs and regional history (Landsgemeinde, 1931) as well as motifs from sport and competition (Tour de Suisse, 1935) are depicted.
In the 1950s, the narrative receded in favor of a concentration on the mood of largely abstract subjects from nature. At the same time, the forms dissolve into a flatness rich in transitions. Through the virtuoso handling of the chisel, patterns are produced which, littering individual internal forms and combined with the play of color, create a painterly visual effect (Tierra caliente, 1960; Erosion, 1964).
From the 1970s, Lill Tschudi worked with a supply of pieces of linoleum, which she printed in ever new configurations. Only the outline is edited. The painterly effect, which ranges from the most delicate transparency to the opaque density of the coloring, is created by sensitive coloring and wiping. The artist often takes up motifs that she has already implemented in earlier work phases. But now, freed from legible materiality, the subjects reflected from deep within seem ever lighter and more unreal (Sardische Felsrhythmen rot, 1988; Rock-Concert, 1990).
Lill Tschudi has made over 450 linocuts. All works are hand-printed. Parallel to the works in this medium, hundreds of watercolors and oil paintings were created, with which the artist reproduces her perceptions of the slow change in the existence of nature, the ever-recurring, its poetry and its drama. However, the motifs and styles in Tschudi's painting are more diverse than in the watercolors. For the artist, collage was an additional technique that she used for experimenting with pictorial ideas and partly integrated it into her paintings and watercolors.

Works in institutional collections (selection): Bietigheim-Bissingen, City Gallery; Boston, Museum of Fine Arts; Canberra, National Gallery of Australia; Kunsthaus Glarus; Schwanden church, tapestry, 1984; London, British Museum; London, Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A); New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art; New York, Museum of Modern Art (MoMA); Zurich, Graphic Collection of the ETH.
SIKART: Kathrin Frauenfelder, 2022