* 1949 Niedergösgen (SO/CH)
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Rolf Winnewisser is certainly one of the most influential and well-known artists of his generation in Switzerland. The “image researcher” is dedicated to the media of drawing, printmaking, watercolor and painting, as well as object and installation, to which he occasionally also adds further formulations in the field of language.
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Rolf Winnewisser attended the school for design in Lucerne, which he graduated as a graphic designer in 1971. From 1972-74 he worked as a draftsman as part of a literacy project in Niger. His participation in documenta 5, 1972 in Kassel, is of great importance. He has been working as a freelance artist since 1974. At an early age, he was able to receive the Swiss Federal Art Scholarship three times, the Kiefer-Hablitzel scholarship and in 1989 the Manor Art Prize Lucerne. This is followed by exhibitions in important institutions in Switzerland and abroad and various teaching assignments at the School of Design and the ETH Zurich. From 1989-1995 he stayed in Paris. In 2006 the artist was honored with the renowned Prix Meret Oppenheim for his complex work.
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Through his artistic work, a cosmos has emerged over the past 30 years, which repeatedly deals with aesthetic questions, the importance of which has steadily grown in our world saturated with images. This cosmos describes the diversity of the world, which he explores by collecting, reading and traveling, and which he continuously develops further by means of associations, networks and chains.
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In addition to printing techniques and drawings, watercolors are a constant technique in the artist's work. In the most recent works, this comes to the fore so much that even large formats appear like huge watercolors due to the glazed application of paint and the interlacing of the images like multiple exposures.
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Rolf Winnewisser lives and works in Ennetbaden (AG / CH).
