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Original woodcut by Ugo Cleis, signed by the artist. 23,5 x 16,5 cm, in fine condition. Ugo Cleis , actually Hugo Cleis (born April 5 , 1903 in Diepflingen , canton of Basel-Landschaft ; September 13 , 1976 in Mendrisio , canton of Ticino ; resident in Buckten ) was a Swiss painter , draftsman , illustrator , decorative painter , wood cutter and mosaicist . Ugo Cleis, son of a teacher, completed an apprenticeship as a flat painter in Sissach . Inspired by the architect Adolf Müller-Senglet (1896 1942), [1] Cleis trained as a decorative and theater painter from 1921 to 1923 at the Dresden Arts and Crafts Academy . The following year he got the necessary practice in Geneva and Italy and returned to the Academy of Applied Arts in 1925 for further studies together with the painter and sculptor Eugen Häfelfinger [2] . In parallel to decorative painting, Cleis created linocuts and woodcuts. Back in Sissach, Cleis worked as a flat painter and later settled in Mendrisiotto , where he met with Aldo Patocchi , Samuel Wülser , Ernst Musfeld (1900 1964) [3] , Guido Gonzato (1896 1955) [4] and Anita Spinelli friends. From 1931, Cleis was a member of the Ticino section GSMBA (SPSAS, Società di pittori, scultori ed architetti svizzeri) and the Ticino Society of Fine Arts. In 1934 Cleis married the teacher Lisa Vela (1901 1988), who worked in Stabio . She was a descendant of Vincenzo Vela . Together they had the children Milo (* 1936) [5] , Vera and Daniele (* 1944) [6] They lived together in Ligornetto where Cleis became friends with Emilio Müller , among others . In 1937, Cleis created two large murals on the Lugano post office building and also made a name for himself in Ticino with his mosaics. As an artist, Cleis continued to work in German-speaking Switzerland , especially in the canton of Basel-Landschaft, where he created numerous sgraffiti and frescoes in private and public buildings . He also created drawings, oil paintings, watercolors and woodcuts, especially large format ones. From 1939 Cleis worked as an illustrator and was friends with Jacques Düblin and Walter Eglin . Cleis' woodcut for the cantonal gymnastics festival in Basel was awarded first prize in 1939. [7] Like Eglin, Cleis belonged to the group Xylos , founded in 1944, and from 1953 to the international group XYLON . In the same year he received the Art Prize of the City of Zurich . In 1962 he was awarded the Pietro Chiesa Prize and in 1964 he won the engraving competition for the La terre et la forêt section at the Lausanne State Exhibition . In 1959, Cleis took part in the exhibition of Modern Mural Painting in Switzerland at the Lucerne Art Museum . Cleis was director of the Vincenzo Vela Museum from 1958 to 1974. The street that leads to the museum is called Via Ugo Cleis , and since 2009 there has been the street Via Lisa Cleis-Vela in Ligornetto. Cleis was the uncle of Martin Cleis .
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