Robert Strübin

Background

Strübin was born in Basel, Switzerland, on February 23, 1897.

Education

Initially, Robert Strübin trained as a pianist at the Music School in Basel. He continued his musical education, studying at the Conservatory in Lausanne from 1915 to 1916 and at the Conservatory in Basel (City of Basel Music Academy) between 1916 and 1924.

Career

Strübin served as a piano teacher in Basel, Bern; starting from 1929 and until 1930 in Paris. That year Robert Strübin returned to Basel, where he lived in his parents' home until 1965. There he started to draw being mostly self-educated. In the year 1932, he created his first graphic works and from 1934 he started to produce architectural drawings. At this time Robert Strübin created architectural compositions, visual illusions and painted marvelous architectural worlds. In 1938 he began to make kaleidoscopic rosettes, which today are considered a predecessor of Op Art.

In 1935 Robert Strübin eventually turned to painting. In 1956 he gave up making music because of some health problems and made his first music artwork. In general, most of his paintings he labeled with the name of the corresponding music. Strübin invented a special colour scheme for every work in order to visualize the respective tone sequences of the figuratively transmitted music. Starting from the 1960s, his paintings were discovered by younger artists, including Karl Gerstner or Walter Bodmer, who were immensely influenced by his works. In 1964 his first one-man exhibition was held in Basel.

Achievements

• Robert Strübin made a significant contribution to the world art. Five years after his death, in 1970, Strübin's works were exhibited at the Kunsthaus Luzern. This exhibition made his art widely known. His pictures were also presented at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
  
  In the year 1972 he was made a posthumous participant of Documenta 5 in Kassel with two of his music pictures and three rosettes. Today his artworks belong to the collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Museum für Gegenwartskunst, the Kupferstichkabinett and the Kunstmuseum Luzern.

Works

More photos

• painting

  • Verdi Requiem, pg. 201-05 (Fragm.)

  • Rosette

  • Improvisation (Modern City): Cacophonic!

  • Rosette

  • Beethoven, Sonate Clair de Lune Domin., Fragm. Ière partie

  • Musical Painting: Giuseppe Verdi, Requiem

  • Rosette

  • J. S. Bach, Wohltemp. Klav. Bd. I, No. IV. (Extrait) / (Duo de Tristesse)

  • Musical Painting (Johann Sebastian Bach, Choral Cantata 187)

  • Musikbild zu einer Komposition von Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski

  • Arthur Honegger: Pastorale d'été

  • 25 Zeichnungen

  • Robert Schumann Symphonie Opus 13

  • Composition

  • Säulen

  • Ruines

  • Morgenstraich in Basel

  • Sakrales Interieur

  • Trop simple

  • J.S. Bach: Contrapunctus V

  • Franz Líszt, danse macabre Cadenza

  • Mandala

  • Composition V

  • Musikbild (H. Berlíoz)

  • Arthur Honegger: Pastorale d'eté

  • Mandala-Rosette

  • Weiblicher Akt

  • Musikbild, Giuseppe Verdi, Requiem

  • Musikbild zu einer Komposition von Pjotr Iljitsch Tschaikowski

  • Rosette

  • Mandala - Rosette

References

• Musik Sehen, Bilder Horen (German Edition)