Karl Walser

This is the first retrospective in Japan of Karl Walser (1877–1943), a Swiss-born unique artist who was active in the first half of the twentieth century.
Born in Biel, a town in the suburbs of Bern, Walser, in his twenties, went to Berlin, where he joined the Berlin Secession, a group aiming at innovative representation, and produced many symbolistic pictures. Combining a somberness alluding to fin-de-siècle art and exquisite colors, these works project an enigmatic mystique and never cease to captivate their viewers even today. Meanwhile, Walser worked on many covers, illustrations, and book designs for books by his one-year-younger brother and a writer Robert Walser and novels and essays by many other prominent writers.
One of the most notable points about Karl Walser would be that he visited Japan and produced works there. He came to Japan together with the German novelist Bernhard Kellermann in 1908, and stayed in Tokyo, Miyazu (Kyoto-fu), etc., where he fervently depicted Japanese landscapes and genre scenes. Such works are not only valuable materials conveying the situation of the time but artistically prominent and impressive. Many of these works were painted in watercolor, and as they have hardly ever been shown in public heretofore, their colors are amazingly vivid and beautiful.
This exhibition is an epoch-making attempt to convey a full view of Walser, who was also active in stage design and mural painting, and all approximately 150 works are on show in Japan for the first time.

1. Paintings and Drawings

Karl Walser was born in 1877, in Biel, a city in the canton of Bern, Switzerland. From 1899 onward, Walser was active in Berlin. In 1902 he participated for the first time in an exhibition of the Berlin Secession and became a member the following year. The Berlin Secession was an anti-academic group of artists founded in 1899 under the leadership of Max Liebermann. Alongside his work as a painter, Walser began working as a book designer in 1902 and as an illustrator in 1904, forging close ties with the publisher and art dealers Bruno Cassirer and Paul Cassirer. In 1905, he undertook mural painting for the first time, creating a frieze decoration for the grand residence of Samuel Fischer.
Karl Walser’s early style was generally shaped by the influence of contemporary Jugendstil artists such as Aubrey Beardsley and is often characterized by a mystical and enigmatic quality. At the same time, it displays a rich diversity that evokes the nocturnal paintings of the Aestheticist painter James McNeill Whistler and, more broadly, the landscape painting of Swiss Romanticism.

2. Sojourn in Japan

In 1908, Walser’s lover, Molly, learned that he was in love with another woman and took her own life in his presence. In the aftermath, Walser fell into a deep depression. Seeking to help him recover, the publisher and gallery owner Paul Cassirer arranged a trip to Japan for several months for Walser, together with the writer Bernhard Kellermann.
Walser stayed in Yokohama, Tokyo, Kyoto, Ise, Miyazu, and other locations. The oil paintings of the Gion Festival and of summer riverside platforms (nouryo-yuka) produced in Kyoto are representative works that vividly demonstrate the fruits of his journey to Japan. From April 24 until mid-August, Walser stayed at the Araki Ryokan Annex in Miyazu, where he was fascinated by the dances of geisha, enjoyed kabuki performances such as "Akoya Kotozeme" at the local theater, attended traditional festivals including the Aoi Matsuri and the Sanno Festival, and produced numerous sketches and watercolors. Many of these images were later reproduced as illustrations in Kellermann’s book Sassa yo Yassa: Japanese Dances, published after their return to Germany. Walser also designed the binding for Kellermann’s A Walk in Japan. Both books became bestsellers for the Paul Cassirer publishing house.

3. Illustrations and book design

Walser began working on book cover designs in 1902 and illustrations in 1904, working not only on the novels and poems of his younger brother Robert, but also on classics such as Cervantes’s Don Quixote, plays by Heinrich von Kleist, and Georg Büchner’s comedy Leonce and Lena. His Rococo-style illustrations for the French chivalric romance of the Louis dynasty period, The Life and Adventures of the Chevalier de Faublas, possess a flavor that might be described as reminiscent of shojo manga (girls’ comics). The cover illustration for Gallows Songs by the contemporary poet Christian Morgenstern gained wide acclaim for reflecting Walser’s distinctive irony while responding to the content of the poems. Furthermore, in his book designs for Thomas Mann’s long novels, including Buddenbrooks, Walser demonstrated a unique talent for skillfully bridging literature and painting.

4. Stage and costume design

Under Max Reinhardt, a director who presided over Deutsches Theaters and other theatrical productions, Walser began his career as a stage designer in 1904. He attracted attention for his stage design for Johann Nestroy’s comedy He Wants to Have a Fling, and his dynamic painted flats synchronized with the revolving stage in Frank Wedekind’s Spring Awakening were highly praised. Thereafter, until 1923, Walser collaborated with leading avant-garde directors of the time, including Hans Gregor (Komische Oper), Otto Brahm (Lessing Theater), and Franz Zavrel, among others.
In 1925, Walser returned to Switzerland with his wife. From 1925 to 1931 he worked on murals and interior decorations for private residences. Between 1933 and 1941 he participated in competitions for murals in public buildings in Zurich and also completed murals on direct commission. From 1941 to 1943, he devoted himself to commissions from the city of Bern for the decoration of the main council chamber of the City Hall and the municipal theater. However, before completing the final wall painting for the latter, themed “Comedy,” he died in Bern on September 28, 1943.