Karl Walser at the Robert Walser Center

Karl Walser, the brother of writer Robert Walser, was highly successful during his lifetime: whether as an illustrator for leading book publishers, as a stage designer for Max Reinhardt in Berlin, as the designer of murals in the City-Bad in Zurich or in Bern's town hall and municipal theater - he achieved mastery in all disciplines. The exhibition "Lover of the Gods, Poet of the Eyes, Man of Success", which opens on January 18/19 as part of the gallery weekend at the Robert Walser Center, will surprise visitors with works that have never been on public display before, such as a sensational drawing from 1894 depicting the 16-year-old Robert Walser that was recently found in a cellar in Biel's old town.

In the tradition of the 'Office Exhibitions', which the Robert Walser Center established with works by Markus Zürcher, Thomas Schütte and Pamela Rosenkranz, Karl Walser's pictures will occupy the central library room and the Center's offices. This setting is the program, as the exhibition is not the final result of a curation, but marks the beginning of an examination of the versatile painter.

Karl Walser is groundbreaking for the literary career of his brother Robert. This is another reason why the artist is of great importance to the Walser Center. In recent years, the Centre has initiated publications on his artistic development, worked with the City of Bern to redesign his gravesite in the Schosshalden cemetery and is contributing to the major Karl Walser exhibition that will be shown in three major cities in Japan in 2026.

The new exhibition at the Robert Walser Center will last a year and will be the occasion for lectures, working meetings and workshops, which will be held together with institutions that have significant Karl Walser collections. In view of Karl Walser's 150th birthday in 2027, the dimensions of his work will be explored and illuminated anew. There is hardly another artist of his time who used so many different media of expression. He was a designer and illustrator of books, designed stage sets and costumes, drew, painted watercolors and oil paintings, made his mark with prints, created frescoes and murals in private and public buildings, served as a board member of the modern artists' association "Berliner Secession" and, as we have only recently learned, designed fabric and wallpaper patterns for the Goethe House in Frankfurt am Main.


Note: This text was translated by machine translation software and not by a human translator. It may contain translation errors.