Untitled

History of the work

On the north-eastern outer wall of the gymnasium of the Höhe school in Bümpliz there is a sgraffito by Mark Adrian. It has no title and dates from 1961. According to Wikidata it is 5.7 metres high and 8.4 metres wide, made of plaster with pigments, and belongs to the City of Bern.

The work is not alone: other post-war school buildings in Bern were also given sgraffiti, such as the Wylergut school in 1949 with Rudolf Mumprecht's zodiac around the clock, or the gymnasium of the nearby Stöckacker school with Toni Grieb's 'Zur Schule gehende Kinder' (Children Going to School) of 1960, a picture measuring 9 by 15 metres.

According to the artists' lexicon SIKART, Adrian was born in Guadalajara, Mexico, on 11 December 1923; his place of citizenship is Olten. According to the Solothurn culture portal sokultur.ch, he went to school in Bern and passed his school-leaving examination there. He then studied at the Kunstgewerbeschule and the University of Zurich and qualified as an art teacher; study trips took him to Paris and Florence. He taught in Bern, including art history at secondary schools and at the Bern baccalaureate school for working adults.

In 1959 Adrian won a first prize in the mural competition of the Bern municipal building department; whether that competition concerned the sgraffito in Bümpliz, the sources do not say. Among his publicly accessible works the portal lists only this sgraffito on the gymnasium. He became better known as an illustrator: from 1962 to 1973 he illustrated the six volumes of Arnold Jaggi's Swiss history for young people, 'Auf dem Wege zur Freiheit' (On the Road to Freedom), and in 1966 a reader for the third school year. To find the picture, walk round the gym to its north-eastern outer wall.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · SIKART: Mark Adrian · sokultur.ch: Mark Adrian, Kulturschaffende · Wikidata: ohne Titel (Q65961945) · Wikimedia Commons: Kategorie Sgraffito ohne Titel (Mark Adrian 1961) · Wikidata: Zur Schule gehende Kinder (Q71333789) · Bauinventar Stadt Bern: Dändlikerweg 60, Schulhaus Wylergut