Blumenwiese III (Ueli Lüthi)
This post is an exception. As you may have noticed, it is not a "photo treasure" but "only" a treasure - about a painter, to be exact.
Ueli Lüthi has a very interesting vita. He is a draughtsman by education, was once one of the best ice hockey players in Switzerland (he won the swiss ice hockey championchip in 1967, played at eight world championships and participated in the Olympic Games in 1972) and after his career he moved to the little town Borgonovo (the birthplace of the famous swiss artist Alberto Giacometti) in the Bergell, a remote valley in the Swiss mountains.
I have first seen paintings by Ueli Lüthi at a gallery where I live and was completely mesmerized. I most appreciated (and still do) his various paintings of flower meadows. Ueli Lüthi's meadows are gaudy flower carpets that seem to extend upwards towards the mountain summits and the sun. For me, the cheerful colors, subtle patterns and the impressionistic style perfectly capture the essence and essential of flowering alpine meadows. Ueli Lüthi captures the substance of his subjects so well that the botanist may even surmise the particular species of flower that some of the dots and streaks represent.
Unfortunately, I have not found much information about Ueli Lüthi and his work online. If you are interested and live somewhere close to Zurich I would recommend visiting the current Ueli Lüthi exposition in the Reppischhallen in Dietikon (the exposition will be open until November 28th). For those of you who understand German, there is an article introducing Ueli Lüthi in the Tagesanzeiger Zürich from 2007 and webpages from his hometown feature the Galleria Lüthi in Borgonova (another link is here). There is also a movie (see below) and photographs from an earlier Ueli Lüthi exhibition at the same location as the current display.
The photograph above this text is "our" Ueli Lüthi alpine flower meadow; a small oil painting on metal that hangs in our alleyway and enlightens our days; particularly when a reflected sunbeam makes the colors glow.
Enjoy and have a nice weekend!
Enjoy and have a nice weekend!
