Andrew Edlin Gallery is pleased to present Hans Krüsi : Art Brut from Appenzell December 5 - January 11, 2003, a solo exhibition of paintings and works on paper by the late Swiss artist. This marks the first exhibition of Krüsi’s art in the United States.
Hans Krüsi (1920-1995) was born in the countryside of Appenzell and lived in an orphanage by the age of eight. After working as a farmhand and gardner, Krüsi began selling flowers on the Bahnhofstrasse in Zurich in 1948 and did so for the next thirty years. In 1975, at age 55, he spontaneously took up drawing and then painting. His works consisted mainly of rural imagery from his native region, specifically cows, alpine landscapes, and poyas-the ceremony of transferring the herds to the summer pastures up in the mountains.
His first large exhibition was held in 1981 at the Buchmann Gallery in St. Gallen. Numerous exhibitions followed and in 1990 his 70th birthday was honored with solo exhibitions at the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne and the Lagerhouse Museum in St. Gallen. In 1995, the last year of his life, a retrospective exhibit was held at Karthause Ittingen, the Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau.
The art of Hans Krüsi is in many private and public collections including the Collection de l’Art Brut in Lausanne, the Kunstmuseum des Kantons Thurgau/Karthause Ittingen, the Musée d’Art Brut, Neuilly-sur-Marne/Paris, and the Outsider Archive in London.