Biography

Alis Guggenheim

Visual Artist

08.03.1896 – 02.09.1958

1896
Born in Lengnau AG
Childhood in Lengnau

1908
Family moves to Dielsdorf
Year in French-speaking Switzerland in Morges

1912
Family moves to Zürich Aussersihl
Apprenticeship as a milliner

1916
Opens her own fashion salon
Alice meets the student and revolutionary Moses Berson

1919
Trip to Moscow with Moses (Mischa) Berson. Joins the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

1920
On June 16, daughter Ruth is born in Moscow. End of July, return to Switzerland

1921
Reopening of the fashion salon. Attends courses on art history at the adult education center.

1924
Alice begins to model, the salon becomes a studio. Alice now calls herself Alis. Entry into the modeling class at the School of Applied Arts is denied; she attends a lay class.

1925
Alis becomes a freelance sculptor

1926
Several sculptures are exhibited at the Kunsthaus

1928
The bronze sculpture "Frau 1928" is exhibited at SAFFA and receives recognition, but is not sold. Personal disappointment over lack of attention as an artist.

1932
Death of her father

1932 – 35
Thanks to a small inheritance, stay in Paris. Alis remains self-taught, however.
Death of her mother.

1935 – 42
Back in Zürich. Growing fascism in Europe. The studio becomes a meeting point for politically engaged people and at times a refuge for emigrants.

1942
Move to Muzzano / TI
Alis begins painting motifs from the Ticino landscape

1944
As part of the "Workers' Culture Week" in Zürich, Alis wants to exhibit her "Frau 1928" and a few other works, but is rejected. She is deeply hurt and disappointed.

1950
Alis paints her most famous pictures: scenes from Jewish life in memory of her Lengnau childhood

1952
Solo exhibition in Basel. Alis is praised by critics for her versatility.

1954
On May 26, Alis receives the Art Prize of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities for visual art "in recognition and gratitude for successful work".

1955
Exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Bern

1956
Exhibition and sale of various works in Zürich. Alis experiences financially good times for the first time. She is associated less with her sculptural work than with the Ticino landscape paintings and her Jewish everyday scenes.

1958
On September 2, Alis Guggenheim dies after a short illness at the Zürich Cantonal Hospital. She is buried in the Jewish cemetery in Lengnau.

Für Alis

Deine Spur schriebst still du mir ins Herz.
Ach - in das Gesetz gezwängt das Leben -
weih' ich der Erinn'rung meinen Schmerz,
machtlos, das Entzücken dir zu geben.

Aug' und Stimme sind mir fern Geläute,
deine Kraft der Sporn zu neuer Tat,
und wir drängen uns zur Lücke heute,
die dein Genius hinterlassen hat.

Zürich, 2. September 1958

From: Poems by Otto Wyss
Collected and published for his 70th birthday on May 16, 1959

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