This website offers a window into Swiss painting. The focus is on the diversity of artistic expression and the innovative and iconographic richness it reveals. The selection concentrates on the period 1880–1970. In some instances, it also draws connections to earlier and later periods.
The approximately 3,800 paintings presented here come from the private collections of Peter Suter and Christoph Hering. A large number of the works and many of their artists have hitherto made little appearance in the public art scene and have remained unknown to a wider audience. The website serves as a platform for bringing to light the undiscovered, the overlooked and the forgotten.
The collection also includes individual works from the category of widely known and celebrated Swiss art. These serve as touchstones for the relevance of the works recommended here.
The website’s title “guardadanov” in Romantsch reflects a connection between the art presented here and the country’s fourth official language. Both images and language, as cultural assets familiar to only a few, rely on dedicated support to gain attention and acceptance.
This website is a resource that can be used by researchers and museums. Curators are invited to explore the diverse range of Swiss painting presented here and to draw on these findings for publications and exhibitions.
All information in the database is continuously updated. The provenance of the works has been clarified as far as possible and is subject to further research. There is scope for the inclusion of further collections.
Information on the artists is directly linked to the SIKART Lexicon of the Swiss Institute for Art Research.
The database provides easy access to cultural assets, information on which was previously difficult to obtain. The Christoph Merian Foundation has provided significant support for the development of this database and website through a grant.
The creation of this website has been initiated and developed by Christoph Hering. It was his idea to create a digital platform for all the works from the two collections and to see this project through both creatively and financially to its completion. Peter Suters 60 years of collecting Swiss art and the associated exhibitions and publications form the starting point for the overview presented here. The diversity of Swiss art, as it is presented in this website, was highlighted by the two exhibitions in the Aargauer Kunsthaus, “Stille Reserven” 2013 and “Blinde Passagiere” 2018.
This website and database are not operated for commercial purposes. Images cannot be downloaded. The reproduction rights for most of the works are in the public domain. The status of the image rights is indicated for each work.
The copyright for the digital photographs on this website is held by Silvia Tarchini and Carol Burri.
The concept, design and technical implementation (development) of the website and database were developed and implemented by Carol Burri. https://www.carolburri.com
For questions, information and feedback, please contact the project manager for this website and database:
Dr Thomas Schmutz: [email protected]
Terms of Use
The use of this non-commercial database is subject to restrictions. The licences and terms of use for the digital images are specified for each individual item.
The ‘Public Domain’ licence permits the use of the images.
The ‘All rights reserved’ licence does not permit the use of the images.
The rights to the photographs are held by Silvia Tarchini and Carol Burri and must be acknowledged in the image credits.
Disclaimer
Compliance with copyright provisions in the event of further use is the responsibility of the users of guardadanov.ch
Users indemnify the operators of the guardadanov.ch website/database against any claims arising from the infringement of copyright or other intellectual property rights.