BERN.- The Swiss artist, architect and Bauhaus student Hans Fischli (1909–1989) is the focus of a thematic presentation as part of the permanent exhibition Kosmos Klee from 24 January to 3 May 2026 at Zentrum Paul Klee. Based on a series of delicate works on paper and three architectural projects from the turbulent 1930s and 1940s, the exhibition Fokus. Hans Fischli explores the artist’s early work. Some of the drawings on display were created during a three-month prison sentence in Meilen district prison.

Following his training as a construction draughtsman in Zurich, Hans Fischli studied at the Bauhaus in Dessau from 1928 onwards, where he attended the classes of Paul Klee, Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky and Oskar Schlemmer. After finishing his studies, Fischli worked as a draughtsman and architect in Switzerland, while devoting himself, as an artist, almost exclusively to drawing for several years. Under the shadow of World War I and the rise of the Nazi regime in Germany, he produced an extensive series of delicate coloured pencil and ink drawings from the late 1920s onwards. The exhibition is showcasing drawings from the series Zellengebilde [Cell Formations], Celerina and Montana, raising questions about the historical and discursive context of Swiss modernism.

‘“I’m not here at all to be examined by you; whether you want me or whether you can use me or can’t use me, I don’t want to.” This led to three months of solitary confinement, which was enormously important for me because I was finally able to do nothing except draw.’ -- Hans Fischli in an interview, 11 April 1986

During the summer of 1930, Fischli served a three-month prison sentence in Meilen district prison in the canton of Zurich for refusing military service. It was during this time that he created the numbered series of works titled Zellengebilde [Cell Formations], the title referring to their place of origin: his prison cell. Fischli had only modest means at his disposal in his cell, yet he still succeeded in producing, on a small scale, delicate, organic forms and figures in ink and pencil, sometimes also adding subtle colouring using watercolour or coloured pencil. While human features can be discerned in some of the works, other drawings appear to depict animals, plants or mythical creatures. The dreamlike quality of the fantastical imagery differs from modernist constructivist concepts, which sought objective, rational principles in abstraction.

Beyond his early visual art, the exhibition also focuses on presenting a selection of three architectural projects by Fischli, reflecting the turbulent political climate of the 1930s and 1940s. Among them is a previously little-noticed early work: from 1936 onwards, under increasingly adverse circumstances, he worked on designing a studio house in the Black Forest (Germany) for his friend and former tutor at the Bauhaus, Oskar Schlemmer. After the Reich’s insurance organisation withdrew its loan for construction, the project became a testament to building with a minimum of financial means. The exhibition is also presenting Fischli as an architect in the service of society. For example, as exhibition architect for the travelling exhibition Kriegsgefangen [Prisoners of war] (1945) by the International Committee of the Red Cross, or as the pedagogically minded constructer of the children’s village for war orphans La Rasa in northern Italy (1949/50).

Curators: Fredi Fischli and Niels Olsen