Although she now lives in Basel, Ilse Lierhammer has spent the majority of her career in the French-speaking regions of Switzerland, and particularly Lausanne, where she has held most of of her solo exhibitions (notably at L’Entracte gallery). Recently, the artist donated all her prints, copper plates and a wide range of drawings and watercolours to the Fondation William Cuendet & Atelier de Saint-Prex.
Born in Schaffhausen in 1939, Ilse Lierhammer is an accomplished engraver, painter and designer. She studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, where she learned under the guidance of Albert-Edgar Yersin, who played a significant role in the development of printmaking in French-speaking Switzerland. Lierhammer then moved to Paris to attend the Académie de la Grande-Chaumière. She later joined fellow former students of Yersin, including Pietro Sarto, in founding the Atelier de Saint-Prex in 1971.
At the Atelier, Lierhammer developed a highly original approach to engraving by combining several techniques - chisel, drypoint, aquatint - and by tirelessly reworking an individual image on the copper plate, thus creating a multiplicity of states. While she initially focused on the landscape, Lierhammer eventually expanded her repertoire to include still lifes. Her favorite motifs often feature interlacing or overlapping sections, highlighting the interplay of contrasts, sometimes blurring the line between figuration and abstraction.
Lierhammer's work has garnered recognition through several federal grants from the Beaux-Arts, as well as a grant from the Grand Prix artistique du Crédit suisse in 1989. In 1991, an exhibition at the Musée Jenisch in Vevey was devoted to several of her Suites d'états, all made from the same copper plate. This series was later featured in the book Inachèvements (Fondation pour les Arts et les Lettres, Vevey, 1992), which presents nineteen of her engravings alongside texts by Florian Rodari. The print pavilion of the musée Jenisch in Vevey was inaugurated in November 2017 with an exhibition featuring works by Lierhammer alongside artists Marianne Décosterd and Susan Litsios.
In addition to her personal creations, Lierhammer also donated to the Fondation a collection of engravings and drawings gifted to her by fellow artists, including Yersin, Flocon, Sarto, Quinche, Décosterd, Tal Coat, and others. This collection also features a deluxe edition of the 1992 Inachèvements album from the collection of Isabelle and Jacques Treyvaud.
