Gruppe Allianz

The "Allianz, Vereinigung moderner Schweizer Künstler" (Alliance, Association of Modern Swiss Artists) was founded in 1937. The founding members were Leo Leuppi, Richard Paul Lohse and Walter Bodmer. Other members included Max Bill, Camille Graeser, Verena Loewensberg, Hans R. Schiess and Sophie Taeuber-Arp. The Allianz group was directly linked to the Zurich School of Concrete art, although the group also produced works in a Surrealist, late Cubist and Constructivist (which had always had a strong position in Switzerland) vein. This stylistic heterogeneousness meant that no one formal medium dominated. Allianz had a strong influence on the development of Concrete and abstract art. The exhibition "Zeitprobleme in der Schweizer Malerei und Plastik" (Problems of Our Time in Swiss Painting and Sculpture), held in Zurich in 1936, influenced Zurich Concrete art, and played a decisive role in the formation of Allianz - some future members participated in it. The group moved into the public eye with numerous exhibitions and a journal "abstrakt konkrete". The last Allianz group exhibition was held in the Kunsthaus Zürich in 1954, and was followed by the group’s dissolution.