Since 2020, we have begun to process the work of Jürg Nänni, his paintings, his books and his works of art on buildings. Many of his works were stored in his old house in Umiken, some were in permanent exhibitions and many were scattered among public or private collectors in Switzerland and abroad. The extent of Jürg Nänni’s oeuvre was unknown to anyone when he died in 2019. Jürg Nänni has been listed on Wikipedia since 2022. He has been registered in the Swiss Institute for Art Research SIK-ISEA and the SIKART Lexicon since the end of 2023.
On August 15, 2023, the working tool Jürg Nänni Inventory [JNI] was completed in version V3a. A total of 1’015 works is recorded in image and text. There are 787 by Jürg Nänni, 60 by Hans Knuchel and a further 157 in collaboration between Jürg Nänni and Hans Knuchel. The [JNI] is a work in progress and is constantly being expanded.
Web
The following links lead to works, publications and the biography of Jürg Nänni:
Permanent exhibitions
- 32 color anagrams, FHNW Brugg, Haller building, ground floor grand hall
- 17 recent pictures, FHNW Brugg, new building Campus 5, 4th floor
- 2 color anagrams, Gewerbeschulhaus Brugg, entrance
- 18 color anagrams, Psychiatric University Clinic, Zurich
- Zurich district building, cafeteria and staircase
Publications
Jürg Nänni Inventory [JNI], as of August 18, 2023
Bound, 300 pages, A4 high, 1000 works illustrated in color, with list of locations, working document, work in progress
Cost price CHF 160.-, for association members CHF 120.-
Jürg Nänni / Hans Knuchel: Catalog of the permanent exhibitions at the FNHW
With ring, A4 landscape, 41 pictures, color
Cost price CHF 50.- for association members CHF 40.-
BLUE. YELLOW. RED
Color anagrams
Hans Knuchel / Jürg Nänni
1991, Copyright Lars Müller publisher
An artist and a mathematician experiment with color. Using different strategies to cover a surface, such as linear or exponential generators, they simulate color combinations. The choice is made from an infinite series of possibilities. The alliance of mathematical chance and extremely advanced technology creates an image that transcends logical understanding: Our perception turns colors and structures into a new reality.
Seesaw
This book is a Seesaw
Hans Knuchel / Jürg Nänni
1994, Copyright Lars Müller publisher
This publication surpasses any idea of what a book can be in its most extreme form: Here, people blink, observe in dim light, look with their eyes closed. The book is shaken, turned or touched with the nose. Some pictures have to be viewed with the help of tools.
“Seesaw” presents a total of 24 phenomena such as “afterimage”, “neon effect”, “Bezold effect”, “random dot stereo” and “fluttering hearts”. “Seesaw” does not pretend to be magic; each phenomenon is explained in an easy-to-understand way in the appendix.
.... aber brich dir ja kein bein... ( ... but do not break your leg ..)
Jürg Nänni
1997, Jürg Nänni, self-published
A book about the irritating phenomena of visual perception. The images are generated from a limited number of overlapping partial images. These consist of the elements: Square, bar, line and triangle. These partial images are shifted, twisted and scaled until the superimposition creates optical effects. The perceived dynamic image of two overlapping grids is called “Moiré”.
As the irritation is mainly caused by the movement, the shape of the book is such that it has to be turned 90 degrees from page to page. It thus becomes a “screenplay” in a double sense.
Awarded in the “Most Beautiful Swiss Books” competition.
Visual Perception
An interactive journey of discovery through our visual system
Jürg Nänni
2008, Copyright Niggli publisher, Sulgen Zürich
Tilted images, illusory edges, neon effects, illusions of movement – Jürg Nänni traces these and numerous other phenomena of visual perception in a playfully fascinating way in his book. The reader is whisked away into the mysterious cosmos of visual perception by means of image and stereo experiments.
The accompanying stereo glasses enable unusual visual experiences, which are complemented by the interactive experiments on the CD-ROM.
Visual Perception is an indispensable basic book for artists, designers and all those interested in visual phenomena and their backgrounds.
Downloads
Jürg Nänni (1942 2019) – Mathematics and Art
Is everything we call art just chance, emotion and chaos? Or perhaps intuitively strictly ordered? Did Johann Sebastian Bach have a mathematical principle in his ear for his Art of Fugue? Did Johann Itten, as a successful painter, intuitively discover the laws of color and thus develop his own color theory and teach it at the Bauhaus?
Conrad U. Brunner on Jürg Nänni, Mathematics and Art (2023)
