• Eva Aeppli
  • 1925 Zofingen, Switzerland – 2015 Honfleur, France

Biography

The daughter of an anthroposophically orientated teacher, Aeppli grew up in a home that was literally isolated from the outside world. It was only at the end of the Second World War, when Aeppli was almost 20 years old, that she first became more involved with the cruelties of war. It became a subject that moved her for the rest of her life. From 1943 – 1945 she attended the School of Arts and Crafts in Basel. In the early 1950s, Aeppli met Jean Tinguely and Daniel Spoerri. Together, they travelled to Paris and Aeppli became Tinguely’s first wife until she was to give way to Niki de Saint Phalle in 1960, who was a close friend before then and even remained one afterwards.

Aeppli worked in the environment of the Nouveaux Réalistes around her husband Tinguely, Aman and Yves Klein, without herself belonging to this group. Her run-down studio in the Impasse Ronsin in Paris was close to Constantin Brâncuși’s workspace, whom she had a love-hate relationship with. Aeppli began her artistic career with charcoal drawings and knitted pictures. At the beginning of the 1960s, Aeppli produced large-format oil paintings with ominous dances of death, skeletons piled on top of each other and interwoven like in mass graves. In the 1970s, the artist intensively occupied herself with astrology. She created sewn head sculptures, which she cast in bronze in the 1990s, mainly to counteract the decay of the fabric sculptures.

Towards the end of her life, she once again lived withdrawn from the outside world – the circle to her childhood closed. She boycotted the daily news, newspapers, television and radio did not interest her. For Aeppli, all that counted was “her world”. She created a cosmos of muffled cries, silent suffering, lost hopes, and underworlds and made them visible in drawings, paintings and fabric sculptures.

Her works are presented in museums all over the world as well as in numerous private collections.

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Lise-Meitner-Straße 7-9
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Mail: contact@galeriemichaelhaas.de

Phone: +49 (0) 30 88 92 91 0
Mail: contact@galeriemichaelhaas.de

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  • Eva
  • Aeppli

1943-45 Basel School of Applied Arts, encounter with Jean Tinguely

1945 Birth of Felix-Vital Leu

1946 Marriage to architect Hans Leu

1949 Encounter with Daniel Spoerri

1950 Birth of Miriam-Eva Tinguely

1951 Marriage to Jean Tinguely

1952 Moves with Jean Tinguely to Montigny-sur-Loing near Fontainebleau and in the same year to Paris

1961 After separating from Tinguely, she works in various studios in Paris

1962 Marries Samuel Mercer and moves to Omaha, USA, and to La Selle-sur-le-Bied, France

From 1975 onwards, she became intensively involved with astrology in collaboration with the astro-psychoanalyst Jacques Berthon and the painter Eric Leraille

1990 Founds the Myrrahkir Foundation against oppression, poverty and ignorance

Exhibitions (selection)

2023

Köpfe maskiert, verwandelt, Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg, Freiburg

2022

Le Musée sentimental d‘Eva Aeppli, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Metz

2021

Ständige Sammlung, Ludwig Museum, Koblenz

2015

Eva Aeppli. Vive la vie – vive la mort, Museum Tinguely, Basel

2010

Eva Aeppli aus dem Gesamtwerk, Ausstellungshaus Spoerri, Hadersdorf am Kamp

2009

Aeppli schenkt Aeppli, Museum Tinguely, Basel

2006

Les Livres de vie, Museum Tinguely, Basel

Eva Aeppli. Acrobate entre Ciel et Terre, Städische Galerie, Ravensburg

Les Livres de vie. Eva Aeppli und ihre Künstlerfreunde, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Solothurn

2004

Freitagsgalerie Imhof, Solothurn

1999

Eva Aeppli. Zur 50-jährigen Freundschaft Eva Aeppli – Daniel Spoerri, Fondazione Il Giardino di Daniel Spoerri, Seggiano

Eva Aeppli. Drawings, Oil Paintings, Sculptures, 1959-1994, Omaha, Garden of the Zodiac

1996

Eva Aeppli. Sculptures. Quelques faiblesses humaines. Éric Leraille. Peintures Galerie Samy Kinge, Paris

1994

Einige menschliche Schwächen, Freitagsgalerie Imhof, Solothurn

Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Solothurn

Zeichnung, Malerei, Skulptur 1953-1989, Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Bonn

1993

Moderna Museet, Stockholm

1991

Eva Aeppli & Jean Tinguely. “Collaboration”, Galerie Littmann, Basel and Galerie Beaubourg, Paris

Eva Aeppli, Bronzen. Éric Leraille, Bilder, Galerie Martin Krebs, Bern

1990

Bronzen von 1976-1987. Bilder von 1960-1965, Galerie Littmann, Basel

Eva Aeppli. Samuel Mercer, Kunst im Alten Schützenhaus, Zofingen

1989

Rétrospective. Dessins – Sculptures – Peintures, Centre culturel suisse, Paris

1986

Eva Aeppli. Sculptures. Peintures. 1960-69, Galerie des Bastions, Geneva

Eva Aeppli, Skulpturen. Éric Leraille, Bilder Pastelle, Galerie Sfeir-Semler, Kiel

1985

Eva Aeppli, Sculptures. Éric Leraille, Peintures, Galerie Samy Kinge, Paris

Bilder 1960-1964, Galerie Littmann, Basel

1980

Le Zodiaque. Les Planètes, Galerie Felix Handschin, Basel

1976

Les Planètes, ARC, musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris

1975

Les Œuvres récentes d’Eva Aeppli, Galerie Iolas, Paris

1974

Helmhaus, Zurich

1973

Gimpel & Weitzenhoffer, New York

1. Biennale der Schweizer Kunst, Kunsthaus Zurich, Zurich

1972

Contemporary Swiss Art, The Tel Aviv Museum Sderot Shaul Hamelech, Tel Aviv

Hanover Gallery, London

31 Artistes Suisses Contemporains, Grand Palais, Paris

1971

Galerie Felix Handschin, Basel

Figuren und Figurengruppen, Karl-Ernst-Osthaus-Museum, Hagen

Skulpturen, Kammerkunsthalle, Bern

Galerie Renée Ziegler, Zurich

ROSC’71. The poetry of vision, Royal Dublin Society, Dublin

Biennale Bolzano

1970

Galerie Jolas, Paris and New York

1969

Skulpturen, Galerie Felix Handschin, Basel

Galerie Schmela, Düsseldorf

Figuren. Figurengruppen. Gemälde, Künstlerhaus am Königstor, Nuremberg

1968

Moderna Museet, Stockholm

1965

Galerie Felix Handschin, Basel

Galerie J, Paris

1959

Galerie Dorekens, Antwerp (in collaboration with Galerie Iris Clert, Paris)

Strip-tease, Galerie Iris Clert, Paris

1954

Galerie Maurice Hajje, Paris

  • Eva
  • Aeppli

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