Children Playing

History of the work

Next to the entrance of the Spitalacker kindergarten, on the covered south wall of the open porch, Carl Bieri painted children at play in 1940. Wikidata lists girls, boys, a rocking horse and daisies as subjects and gives the dimensions as about 1.80 by 2.70 metres. According to the city's building inventory, a second mural by Bieri inside the building has not survived.

The kindergarten was built in 1939/40 to plans by the architect Peter Rohr together with the municipal building office under Fritz Hiller. It stands on part of the garden of the former Spitalacker estate, also known as Waldheim. The inventory describes a pavilion-like double kindergarten, built largely as a timber frame clad in wooden shingles. The porch where the painting is found is formed by a small flat for the caretaker that sits above the entrance on round columns. For the heritage office the house represents a modernism of the war and post-war years that took its cue from rural building forms. An extension was added in 1973.

Carl Bieri was born in Bern on 17 October 1894 and died there on 18 February 1962; his place of citizenship was Schangnau. SIKART lists him as a graphic artist, craftsman, plasterer, house painter and librarian and names still lifes, landscapes, portraits and scenes of popular life as his subjects. According to Wikipedia he made murals and tapestries for public buildings in Bern, as well as school wall charts and book illustrations. From 1919 until his death he lived in the lowest house of the Klapperläubli, Nydeggstalden 32.

Rudolf Schnyder wrote about his tapestries in the Schweizerische Bauzeitung in 1957, and a year after Bieri's death the Kunsthalle Bern held a memorial exhibition. Standing in front of the kindergarten today, you can find the rocking horse and the daisies among the figures.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Bauinventar der Stadt Bern: Spitalackerstrasse 34 · SIKART: Carl Bieri · Wikipedia (de): Carl Bieri · Wikidata: Spielende Kinder · Wikimedia Commons: Wandmalerei Spielende Kinder