Andreas Walser

• Name — Andreas Walser • Born — 13 April 1908 • Birthplace — Chur, Switzerland • Died — 19 March 1930 • Place of death — Paris, France • Known for — Painting, writing and photography

Andreas Walser was born on 13 April 1908 in Chur. He attended the gymnasium in Chur and completed his Matura in 1928. As a school student, he was already pursuing art and received encouragement from Augusto Giacometti and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, both of whom recognised his talent and supported his artistic development. From 1928, Walser worked in his own studio in Paris. At the end of 1928, he met Pablo Picasso, followed in early 1929 by Jean Cocteau. Maurice Tabard introduced him to photography in 1929. Walser worked intensively as both a painter and writer, and his work attracted attention from art dealers and collectors. Alongside his painting, Walser wrote prose, poems and aphorisms in German and French. His Paris years included intense periods of work as well as episodes of illness, and he continued to spend time in Graubünden. In early 1930, after a period of convalescence, he stayed for several weeks in Marseille and on Corsica before returning to Paris. He died in Paris on 19 March 1930, shortly before his twenty-second birthday.

Walser worked as a painter, writer and photographer. His early works showed the influence of Augusto Giacometti and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. In Paris, his still lifes and portraits were shaped mainly by synthetic Cubism. Some works also drew on Dadaist, Surrealist and abstract approaches. His photographic work included a small number of photograms. Walser’s work drew on several modernist currents, but he did not align himself with a single movement. During his lifetime, some of his works were exhibited and sold. His 1930 oil painting Baigneurs (Am Strand) is held by the Bündner Kunstmuseum Chur. Other works are held in collections including the Kirchner Museum Davos.

• Illustration — Blue heads • Illustration — Still life with black moon • Illustration — Title unknown