Ferdinand Gehr

Ferdinand Gehr (1896–1996) was a Swiss painter and stained-glass artist associated especially with church art. Active from the 1920s onward, he developed a distinctive modern approach to Christian subjects and became an important figure in the renewal of church painting in Switzerland. His work was at times controversial, including in Oberwil, Zug, where murals for the Church of Bruderklaus were veiled after protests. His work was later the subject of major exhibitions and reviews. The son of a hand embroiderer, he attended the Schule des Industrie- und Gewerbemuseums Basel from 1911 and worked as a draughtsman in Flawil between 1914 and 1918. He then studied at the Gewerbeschule St. Gallen, followed by training in fresco technique in Florence in 1922 and 1923.

SRF described him as the best-known representative of religious painting in Switzerland and said a 2001 retrospective at the Kunstmuseum St. Gallen presented him not only as a major church painter but also as an early representative of modern painting.

St. Galler Tagblatt described Gehr’s work as breaking new ground and noted that his religious works, including those in Oberwil, had provoked public controversy in the 1950s.