Alois Carigiet
Encyclopedia
Alois Carigiet was a Swiss
graphic designer
, painter
, and illustrator
. His most famous work includes a series of six illustrated children's books on alpine themes. In 1966 he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award
for illustration
. He was the older brother of actor and comedian Zarli Carigiet
.
in the canton of Grisons, where he grew up and spent his first school years. At home, the family spoke Sursilvan, the local Romansh dialect of the anterior Rhine valley. In 1911, economic hardship forced his family to move to the canton’s German-speaking capital Chur
where his father found employment. This relocation into a more urban environment had a strong impact on the nine-year old. In retrospect, Carigiet described the move as an “emigration to the low-lands”, from a “mountain boy’s paradise” to a “gloomy apartment on the ground floor in a narrow town alley”.
Carigiet visited primary and secondary schools in Chur, as well as the "Kantonsschule", the canton’s gymnasium
, which he quit in 1918 in order to start an apprenticeship as a decorative designer and draftsman with master painter Martin Räth. While learning the art of graining
, marbleizing, gold plating
and other techniques of decorative art
in Räth's atelier, Carigiet spent a lot of his spare time filling volumes of sketchbooks with drawings of rural and urban scenes, farm animals and pets, anatomical studies of heads and beaks of the birds exhibited at Chur’s natural history museum, as well as with numerous caricatures of his acquaintances and family. Räth noticed the apprentice’s talent as well, and one of Carigiet’s appointed creations, an assembly of decorated vases for the company Siebler & Co.’s shop windows, seems to have received particular appreciation. Carigiet finished his apprenticeship in 1923, with the highest grade in every subject.
and started a job as a practical trainee with Max Dalang’s advertisement agency in 1923, where he soon learned the techniques of graphic design
and was hired as a regular employee. After having won several competitions and having gained a reputation, Carigiet opened his own graphic atelier in Zurich in 1927, employing up to six people at times, due to the constantly large volume of orders his business received. Carigiet created numerous commercial and political advertisement posters, festive decorations, educational posters and mural
s for schools, illustrations and satirical caricatures for the print media, as well magazine covers for periodicals such as Schweizer Spiegel and SBB-Revue. Important work in the 1930s included a diorama
for the Swiss Pavilion at the Paris International world fair
in 1937, and set designs, murals and the official posters for the "Landi", the Swiss national exposition held in Zurich in 1939.
, whose use of photomontage in a poster announcing the exhibition of Russian avant-garde artists in Zurich, in 1928, inspired the design of a political campaign poster for Zurich's mayor Emil Klöti. In the early 1930s Carigiet traveled to Paris
, Munich
, Vienna
, and Salzburg
where he became acquainted with the art movement Neue Sachlichkeit, as reflected in painted scenes of Paris in ’Das rote Haus am Montmartre (watercolor) and of Ascona
in Haus und Garten in Ascona (oil painting
on cardboard), both created in 1935. Contemporary expressionism
had an influence on his work as well, including his commercial artwork: For example, the display of red horses and a green cow on posters for the OLMA, Switzerland’s annual national agricultural fair, in 1946 and 1952 received acclaim from art critics and questions from more conservative farmers, to which he succinctly replied that the cow was green because it had eaten grass.
Carigiet’s paintings increasingly depicted everyday motifs from his home canton Graubünden and occasionally Zurich, but also from further trips to France
, Spain
, and Lapland in the mid 1930s.
Carigiet always held a keen interest in the theatre, and had already worked in costume design
in the late 1920s. With the help of art critic Jakob Rudolf Welti, he was commissioned as costume and stage designer for the Stadttheater Zürich’s performance of La belle Hélène
in an adaptation by Max Werner Lenz, and created design work for three other programs at the Stadttheater as well. Carigiet was one of the founding members of the influential Cabaret Cornichon
, a satirical cabaret program staged in the restaurant "zum Hirschen" in Zurich which would become one of the most significant political cabarets of German-speaking Switzerland during Germany’s Nazi regime
. Carigiet designed the Cabaret's logo, a grinning cornichon (gherkin
) with a carrot-nose, and from 1935 to 1946 he created often parodistic costume and set designs for ten of the Cornichon’s programs, including a heavily decorated barrel organ
used by his brother Zarli who was also a member of the Cabaret’s ensemble.
in May 1939, Carigiet hiked to "Platenga", a hamlet on one of the terraces in the community of Obersaxen
, where, in his own words, he was immediately fascinated by the landscape's vastness and untouchedness and the feeling of a newly found, long lost paradise. He gave up his business in Zurich, and, in October 1939, rented a small farm house without electricity or running water, the "Hüs am Bach" ("house at the stream") in Platenga. Carigiet wished to dedicate his life to art and observation, spending hours a day, equipped with a pair of binoculars and a sketch book, tracking down the alpine fauna.
On April 20, 1943, Carigiet married Berta Carolina Müller (1911–1980) an art student from Halle
whom he had met in Germany. After their first daughter was born in 1944, they bought land near Platenga’s chapel. In 1945 Carigiet designed plans for a larger house which was built in 1946. In 1947, the second daughter was born in the new house, called "Im Sunnefang". Mainly for the sake of the girls’ education, the family moved back to Zurich in 1950, where Carigiet took up his work as a graphic designer again, while also continuing his artistic pursuits.
, Chönz's home village in the Lower Engadin
, after which he modeled the protagonist’s village. In October 1945 the book was published in German as Uorsin (Schellen-Ursli. Ein Engadiner Bilderbuch). The story follows a boy’s perilous climb through snow to an abandoned summer hut in order to retrieve a large trychel for the annual Chalandamarz celebrations on March 1. The English title is A Bell for Ursli; the book has been translated into ten languages with total sales estimated around 1.7 million worldwide. Carigiet's dramatic and colorful compositions were noticed and positively reviewed by art critics such as Manuel Gasser in Graphis Inc. or Linus Birchler, editor-in-chief of Art Monuments of Switzerland and member of the Swiss Federal Art Commission.
Carigiet and Chönz continued their series of alpine children’s books after "Schellen-Ursli" with two titles focusing on Ursli’s younger sister: Flurina (Flurina und das Wildvögelein. Schellen-Ursli’s Schwester) in 1952 (English title: Florina and the Wild Bird) and La naivera (Der grosse Schnee) in 1957 (The Snowstorm). In the 1960s, Carigiet continued on his own, illustrating and writing Zottel, Zick und Zwerg. Eine Geschichte von drei Geissen in 1965 (Anton the Goatherd), Birnbaum, Birke, Berberitze. Eine Geschichte aus den Bündner Bergen in 1967 (The Pear Tree, the Birch Tree and the Barberry Bush), and Maurus und Madleina. Über den Berg in die Stadt in 1969 (Anton and Anne). In 1966, Carigiet received the Hans Christian Andersen Award
for his lasting contribution to children’s literature, making him the first recipient of the award for illustration. The same year, he was awarded the Schweizer Jugendbuchpreis (Swiss youth book prize) for Zottel, Zick und Zwerg.
, "the greatest of all", as an exemplary inspiration for his artistic approach. Until 1982, he frequently exhibited his artwork in Switzerland, but also in Toronto
(1969) and Frankfurt (1971). Alois Carigiet died on August 1, 1985 in Trun.
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
graphic designer
Graphic designer
A graphic designer is a professional within the graphic design and graphic arts industry who assembles together images, typography or motion graphics to create a piece of design. A graphic designer creates the graphics primarily for published, printed or electronic media, such as brochures and...
, painter
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, and illustrator
Illustrator
An Illustrator is a narrative artist who specializes in enhancing writing by providing a visual representation that corresponds to the content of the associated text...
. His most famous work includes a series of six illustrated children's books on alpine themes. In 1966 he was awarded the Hans Christian Andersen Award
Hans Christian Andersen Award
The Hans Christian Andersen Award, sometimes known as the "Nobel Prize for children's literature", is an international award given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature"...
for illustration
Illustration
An illustration is a displayed visualization form presented as a drawing, painting, photograph or other work of art that is created to elucidate or dictate sensual information by providing a visual representation graphically.- Early history :The earliest forms of illustration were prehistoric...
. He was the older brother of actor and comedian Zarli Carigiet
Zarli Carigiet
Zarli Carigiet was a Swiss actor and comedian. He was a member of the satirical Cabaret Cornichon and starred in movies by directors such as Leopold Lindtberg, Franz Schnyder, and Kurt Früh...
.
Early life and education in Graubünden (1902 – 1923)
Alois Carigiet was the seventh of eleven children born to Alois Carigiet and Barbara Maria Carigiet, née Lombriser, a farmer’s family from TrunTrun, Switzerland
Trun is a municipality in the district of Surselva in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.-Geography:Trun has an area, , of . Of this area, 23.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34% is forested...
in the canton of Grisons, where he grew up and spent his first school years. At home, the family spoke Sursilvan, the local Romansh dialect of the anterior Rhine valley. In 1911, economic hardship forced his family to move to the canton’s German-speaking capital Chur
Chur
Chur or Coire is the capital of the Swiss canton of Graubünden and lies in the northern part of the canton.-History:The name "chur" derives perhaps from the Celtic kora or koria, meaning "tribe", or from the Latin curia....
where his father found employment. This relocation into a more urban environment had a strong impact on the nine-year old. In retrospect, Carigiet described the move as an “emigration to the low-lands”, from a “mountain boy’s paradise” to a “gloomy apartment on the ground floor in a narrow town alley”.
Carigiet visited primary and secondary schools in Chur, as well as the "Kantonsschule", the canton’s gymnasium
Gymnasium (school)
A gymnasium is a type of school providing secondary education in some parts of Europe, comparable to English grammar schools or sixth form colleges and U.S. college preparatory high schools. The word γυμνάσιον was used in Ancient Greece, meaning a locality for both physical and intellectual...
, which he quit in 1918 in order to start an apprenticeship as a decorative designer and draftsman with master painter Martin Räth. While learning the art of graining
Graining
Graining is the practice of imitating woodgrain on a non-wood surface in order to increase that surface's aesthetic appeal. Graining was common in the 19th century, as people were keen on imitating hard, expensive woods by applying a superficial layer of paint onto soft, inexpensive woods. Graining...
, marbleizing, gold plating
Gold plating
Gold plating is a method of depositing a thin layer of gold onto the surface of another metal, most often copper or silver , by chemical or electrochemical plating...
and other techniques of decorative art
Decorative art
The decorative arts is traditionally a term for the design and manufacture of functional objects. It includes interior design, but not usually architecture. The decorative arts are often categorized in opposition to the "fine arts", namely, painting, drawing, photography, and large-scale...
in Räth's atelier, Carigiet spent a lot of his spare time filling volumes of sketchbooks with drawings of rural and urban scenes, farm animals and pets, anatomical studies of heads and beaks of the birds exhibited at Chur’s natural history museum, as well as with numerous caricatures of his acquaintances and family. Räth noticed the apprentice’s talent as well, and one of Carigiet’s appointed creations, an assembly of decorated vases for the company Siebler & Co.’s shop windows, seems to have received particular appreciation. Carigiet finished his apprenticeship in 1923, with the highest grade in every subject.
Graphic design in Zurich (1923 – 1939)
After having completed his apprenticeship, Carigiet sought work in ZurichZürich
Zurich is the largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is located in central Switzerland at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich...
and started a job as a practical trainee with Max Dalang’s advertisement agency in 1923, where he soon learned the techniques of graphic design
Graphic design
Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
and was hired as a regular employee. After having won several competitions and having gained a reputation, Carigiet opened his own graphic atelier in Zurich in 1927, employing up to six people at times, due to the constantly large volume of orders his business received. Carigiet created numerous commercial and political advertisement posters, festive decorations, educational posters and mural
Mural
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other large permanent surface. A particularly distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.-History:Murals of...
s for schools, illustrations and satirical caricatures for the print media, as well magazine covers for periodicals such as Schweizer Spiegel and SBB-Revue. Important work in the 1930s included a diorama
Diorama
The word diorama can either refer to a nineteenth century mobile theatre device, or, in modern usage, a three-dimensional full-size or miniature model, sometimes enclosed in a glass showcase for a museum...
for the Swiss Pavilion at the Paris International world fair
Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)
The Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne was held from May 25 to November 25, 1937 in Paris, France...
in 1937, and set designs, murals and the official posters for the "Landi", the Swiss national exposition held in Zurich in 1939.
Artistic development
Though he had never studied visual arts in the academic sense, Carigiet's early graphic design was already strongly influenced by contemporary artists, such as El LissitzkyEl Lissitzky
, better known as El Lissitzky , was a Russian artist, designer, photographer, typographer, polemicist and architect. He was an important figure of the Russian avant garde, helping develop suprematism with his mentor, Kazimir Malevich, and designing numerous exhibition displays and propaganda works...
, whose use of photomontage in a poster announcing the exhibition of Russian avant-garde artists in Zurich, in 1928, inspired the design of a political campaign poster for Zurich's mayor Emil Klöti. In the early 1930s Carigiet traveled to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
, and Salzburg
Salzburg
-Population development:In 1935, the population significantly increased when Salzburg absorbed adjacent municipalities. After World War II, numerous refugees found a new home in the city. New residential space was created for American soldiers of the postwar Occupation, and could be used for...
where he became acquainted with the art movement Neue Sachlichkeit, as reflected in painted scenes of Paris in ’Das rote Haus am Montmartre (watercolor) and of Ascona
Ascona
Ascona is a municipality in the district of Locarno in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland.It is located on the shore of Lake Maggiore.The town is a popular tourist destination, and holds a yearly jazz festival, the Ascona Jazz Festival....
in Haus und Garten in Ascona (oil painting
Oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil—especially in early modern Europe, linseed oil. Often an oil such as linseed was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body...
on cardboard), both created in 1935. Contemporary expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
had an influence on his work as well, including his commercial artwork: For example, the display of red horses and a green cow on posters for the OLMA, Switzerland’s annual national agricultural fair, in 1946 and 1952 received acclaim from art critics and questions from more conservative farmers, to which he succinctly replied that the cow was green because it had eaten grass.
Carigiet’s paintings increasingly depicted everyday motifs from his home canton Graubünden and occasionally Zurich, but also from further trips to France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, Spain
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...
, and Lapland in the mid 1930s.
Carigiet always held a keen interest in the theatre, and had already worked in costume design
Costume design
Costume design is the fabrication of apparel for the overall appearance of a character or performer. This usually involves researching, designing and building the actual items from conception. Costumes may be for a theater or cinema performance but may not be limited to such...
in the late 1920s. With the help of art critic Jakob Rudolf Welti, he was commissioned as costume and stage designer for the Stadttheater Zürich’s performance of La belle Hélène
La belle Hélène
La belle Hélène , opéra bouffe in three acts, is an operetta by Jacques Offenbach to an original French libretto by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy...
in an adaptation by Max Werner Lenz, and created design work for three other programs at the Stadttheater as well. Carigiet was one of the founding members of the influential Cabaret Cornichon
Cabaret Cornichon
The Cabaret Cornichon was a Swiss cabaret company.It existed from 1934 to 1951 and was founded by Otto Weissert, Walter Lesch, Emil Hegetschweiler and Alois Carigiet. They were later joined by, among others, Max Werner Lenz, Elsie Attenhofer, Voli Geiler, Margrit Rainer, Heinrich Gretler, Zarli...
, a satirical cabaret program staged in the restaurant "zum Hirschen" in Zurich which would become one of the most significant political cabarets of German-speaking Switzerland during Germany’s Nazi regime
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
. Carigiet designed the Cabaret's logo, a grinning cornichon (gherkin
Gherkin
The gherkin is a fruit similar in form and nutritional value to a cucumber. Gherkins and cucumbers belong to the same species , but are from different cultivar groups....
) with a carrot-nose, and from 1935 to 1946 he created often parodistic costume and set designs for ten of the Cornichon’s programs, including a heavily decorated barrel organ
Barrel organ
A barrel organ is a mechanical musical instrument consisting of bellows and one or more ranks of pipes housed in a case, usually of wood, and often highly decorated...
used by his brother Zarli who was also a member of the Cabaret’s ensemble.
Platenga (1939 – 1950)
While spending a holiday in TrunTrun, Switzerland
Trun is a municipality in the district of Surselva in the canton of Graubünden in Switzerland.-Geography:Trun has an area, , of . Of this area, 23.6% is used for agricultural purposes, while 34% is forested...
in May 1939, Carigiet hiked to "Platenga", a hamlet on one of the terraces in the community of Obersaxen
Obersaxen
Obersaxen is a municipality in the district of Surselva in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.-History:Obersaxen is first mentioned in 765 as Supersaxa though this is from a copy which dates from later...
, where, in his own words, he was immediately fascinated by the landscape's vastness and untouchedness and the feeling of a newly found, long lost paradise. He gave up his business in Zurich, and, in October 1939, rented a small farm house without electricity or running water, the "Hüs am Bach" ("house at the stream") in Platenga. Carigiet wished to dedicate his life to art and observation, spending hours a day, equipped with a pair of binoculars and a sketch book, tracking down the alpine fauna.
On April 20, 1943, Carigiet married Berta Carolina Müller (1911–1980) an art student from Halle
Halle, Saxony-Anhalt
Halle is the largest city in the German state of Saxony-Anhalt. It is also called Halle an der Saale in order to distinguish it from the town of Halle in North Rhine-Westphalia...
whom he had met in Germany. After their first daughter was born in 1944, they bought land near Platenga’s chapel. In 1945 Carigiet designed plans for a larger house which was built in 1946. In 1947, the second daughter was born in the new house, called "Im Sunnefang". Mainly for the sake of the girls’ education, the family moved back to Zurich in 1950, where Carigiet took up his work as a graphic designer again, while also continuing his artistic pursuits.
Children’s books
In 1940, Carigiet was approached by the Romansh speaking author Selina Chönz who asked him to illustrate her story Uorsin and publish it as a children’s picture book. After several years of hesitating, Carigiet finally agreed, and spent several weeks sketching the scenery and architecture in GuardaGuarda, Switzerland
Guarda is a municipality in Inn District in the Swiss canton of Graubünden.Guarda was awarded the Wakker Prize for the preservation of its architectural heritage in 1975.-Geography:...
, Chönz's home village in the Lower Engadin
Engadin
The Engadin or Engadine is a long valley in the Swiss Alps located in the canton of Graubünden in southeast Switzerland. It follows the route of the Inn River from its headwaters at Maloja Pass running northeast until the Inn flows into Austria one hundred kilometers downstream...
, after which he modeled the protagonist’s village. In October 1945 the book was published in German as Uorsin (Schellen-Ursli. Ein Engadiner Bilderbuch). The story follows a boy’s perilous climb through snow to an abandoned summer hut in order to retrieve a large trychel for the annual Chalandamarz celebrations on March 1. The English title is A Bell for Ursli; the book has been translated into ten languages with total sales estimated around 1.7 million worldwide. Carigiet's dramatic and colorful compositions were noticed and positively reviewed by art critics such as Manuel Gasser in Graphis Inc. or Linus Birchler, editor-in-chief of Art Monuments of Switzerland and member of the Swiss Federal Art Commission.
Carigiet and Chönz continued their series of alpine children’s books after "Schellen-Ursli" with two titles focusing on Ursli’s younger sister: Flurina (Flurina und das Wildvögelein. Schellen-Ursli’s Schwester) in 1952 (English title: Florina and the Wild Bird) and La naivera (Der grosse Schnee) in 1957 (The Snowstorm). In the 1960s, Carigiet continued on his own, illustrating and writing Zottel, Zick und Zwerg. Eine Geschichte von drei Geissen in 1965 (Anton the Goatherd), Birnbaum, Birke, Berberitze. Eine Geschichte aus den Bündner Bergen in 1967 (The Pear Tree, the Birch Tree and the Barberry Bush), and Maurus und Madleina. Über den Berg in die Stadt in 1969 (Anton and Anne). In 1966, Carigiet received the Hans Christian Andersen Award
Hans Christian Andersen Award
The Hans Christian Andersen Award, sometimes known as the "Nobel Prize for children's literature", is an international award given biennially by the International Board on Books for Young People in recognition of a "lasting contribution to children's literature"...
for his lasting contribution to children’s literature, making him the first recipient of the award for illustration. The same year, he was awarded the Schweizer Jugendbuchpreis (Swiss youth book prize) for Zottel, Zick und Zwerg.
Later life (1960 – 1985)
In 1960, Carigiet bought the house "Flutginas" (ferns) located above Trun, his village of childhood, where he would spend the rest of his life dedicated to painting. In a speech held in Zurich in 1962, he described his works as "narrative art" in a century of abstraction, and named Georges RouaultGeorges Rouault
Georges Henri Rouault[p] was a French Fauvist and Expressionist painter, and printmaker in lithography and etching.-Childhood and education:Rouault was born in Paris into a poor family...
, "the greatest of all", as an exemplary inspiration for his artistic approach. Until 1982, he frequently exhibited his artwork in Switzerland, but also in Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
(1969) and Frankfurt (1971). Alois Carigiet died on August 1, 1985 in Trun.