Hans Gyhr (1906-1992)
A quiet representative of Zurich constructivism
Hans Gyhr, around 1980
Hans Gyhr is one of the quieter voices of the Zurich Constructivists of the 20th century. Born in Basel in 1906 as the second youngest child in a large family of eleven siblings, he grew up in an environment of simplicity, solidarity and self-assertion – experiences that were later reflected in the structural rigor and social undertone of his works.
Influenced by the clear formal language of Sophie Taeuber-Arp and the systematic rigor of Richard Paul Lohse, Gyhr developed his own restrained visual language between geometry and poetic calm. While Lohse networked internationally, Gyhr remained down-to-earth in his formal language – a seeker between system and sensation, order and atmosphere.
In 1942, he married Hedy Suter from Mettmenstetten, who was involved in the women’s aid service and later ran a boarding house for daughters in Zurich. They lived together in Zurich-Wollishofen, where Hedy gave him the freedom to work artistically without having to submit to the market.
His paintings, mostly created in silence, combine constructive order with quiet poetic moments – an individual signature within the Zurich School. Hans Gyhr died in 1992 in the Neumünster hospital in Zollikerberg. Today, he is regarded as a marginal figure of Swiss Constructivism who needs to be rediscovered and whose work stands between the poles of discipline and humanity.
In the summer of 2025, we carefully restored the constructivist oil paintings by Hans Gyhr from the Hedy Suter collection in our BLISS studio. From now on these works are available exclusively from us.
Works by Hans Gyhr, 1950s
Oil on canvas/stretcher frame
In our store you will find selected original works by Hans Gyhr. Each picture has been carefully restored and photographed with identical camera settings so that the proportions remain comparable.
Biographical details
For those interested, we have compiled the family constellation and the most important biographical key data on Hans Gyhr:
Download Biography & Family Constellation as PDF > Hans Gyhr – Texts and family.pdf