Camouflage proposal by Hans Erni for ammunition depot 5 in Rynächt, 1940.

On 14 March 1940 Hans Erni (1909–2015) received an unusual letter. Colonel Mezener from the Federal Military Department wrote to him from Bern saying that the ammunition depot built into the rock face in Altdorf had been inspected, and potential camouflage work had been considered – in other words, the painting of military buildings with camouflage patterns. He explained that this was a special case “where an artist’s eye was needed”. Colonel Mezener asked Erni whether he would accompany him on another inspection in Altdorf.

What a commission this was for a painter who just a few years earlier had been in London at the heart of Europe’s abstract and avant-gardist art movement as a cosmopolitan of non-representational art.

But, according to a contemporary report, the circumstances were “chilly towards progressive ideas”. By the mid-1930s, a climate had arisen in Switzerland in which avant-gardist art was eyed with mistrust and occasionally accused of ‘Cultural Bolshevism’. Ironically, it was in this environment that Erni was approached in 1937 to produce one of the biggest commissions for the National Exhibition in Zurich. A year later, this mood intensified. In late 1938, Federal Councillor Philipp Etter called for Geistige Landesverteidigung (spiritual national defence) in a landmark dispatch in which he said that Switzerland needed to focus on its democratic tradition and cultural uniqueness. The National Exhibition in 1939 became its symbol.

Although London had provided Erni with excellent professional and artistic opportunities during these years, he decided to move back to Switzerland in 1938. This marked a departure from abstraction and the beginning of the visual communication of societal content – with a few camouflage assignments thrown in.

Hans Erni, 1997.

The ‘Landibild’ mural for the National Exhibition

Together with his friend and art scholar Konrad Farner, Hans Erni developed the visual concept for the national exhibition: a 100-metre-long mural depicting Switzerland with its different landscapes – Swiss Plateau, Alpine foothills, Alps, southern region – throughout the four seasons. History, rural life, customs, technology and science – all interwoven onto a single narrative scene. As he later wrote, Erni wanted to highlight the relationship between humans and enduring nature, and “to visually connect the past with the present”.

The mural was a hit with the public. Critic Manuel Gasser wrote in Weltwoche magazine that “here was a young Swiss man recounting the beauties of his homeland in a completely new way”, underscoring the identity-building relevance of the National Exhibition. The extent to which Erni was consciously aiming to achieve this is shown by his own remarks before creating the ‘Landibild’ in 1938. He said that he wanted to create a sequence that seemed to unfold according to a causal logic. The only approach that lent itself to this was the chronological course of Swiss history. Historical contrasts, such as the Reformation wars and the Sonderbund War, had to be consciously ‘eradicated’ as the objective of the National Exhibition lay “not in division but in unification”. The ‘Landibild’ mural brought Hans Erni overnight fame as an artist. Yesterday’s avant-gardist became the nation’s narrator.