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But someone who may have a slight limp, but who is physically and mentally agile and even bouncy. He is also filled with the urge to work that you would expect from an emerging artist , a young, up-and-coming artist. The decades-long columnist for the Basler Zeitung and social connoisseur with the name "-minu" describes him like this: "He's a bit crazy, over-the-top, but he's a Basel original, of which every generation on the Rhine knee only produces a few specimens - I like Louis."
Old question: Do tough personal experiences produce better art?
He has been realising his announcement "I want to return to the art market" for around two years. "His works are resonating," writes Dominique von Burg, a publicist who is well- disposed towards him. In 2022, he earned 45,000 francs from painting, as he is unusually open about, and this year it is likely to be less (his paintings cost between 2,500 and 6,000 francs). But it's true - he is now represented by galleries in Zurich and Basel, and the exhibition at London's Chelsea Arts Club, a private social club, this autumn meant a lot to him, the Chelsea College alumnus. (Even if he wasn't able to sell any pictures, which perhaps had more to do with the hanging in the so-called Billiards Room, above the snooker table, than with the quality of the works). The old question: do tough personal experiences produce better art, does suffering create a more profound work? A draft text for the upcoming exhibition at the Sarasin Art Gallery in Basel states that Schlumberger's career path, "characterised by intense upheavals", led him to profound painting. "His paintings thematise unreal worlds that are invisible to the eye but real to the soul." Ute Barth, his Zurich gallery owner, also says that she decided in favour of the artist because his paintings are mysterious. "There are ghosts and stories, sometimes even disturbing stories, hidden in the numerous layers of paint." She even sees Schlumberger's works in the tradition of Paul Klee, who wanted to make the invisible visible. As befits a contemporary painter, Louis Schlumberger spreads images and messages via Instagram. "I feel grateful for my wonderful life," he shared there after his London show. It's high time to update Spitzweg's image of the poor poet, which was described here as an introduction - it no longer reflects his life circumstances.
Enfant terrible with depth: artist Schlumberger at London's Chelsea Arts Club.
Picture: Muir Vidler
viewed. Schlumberger was treated with cortisone for years. This led to bone atrophy and several vertebrae broke as a result of the side effects, he concluded. Every movement meant pain. The condition of his bones, especially in his back, was poor - advanced osteoporosis. "Painting? Unthinkable. I was bedridden and condemned to inactivity," he says. He accused the doctor of bungling and malpractice - and demanded 2.3 million francs in compensation for the loss of earnings he had suffered. A glass-half-full type To make a long story short: Schlumberger was ultimately awarded compensation of 35,000 Swiss francs for damage to property and as satisfaction. What a
Beobachter journalist who reported on the case described it as a bitter defeat - because the doctor paid "without recognising any breach of duty of care, liability or legal obligation". At the end of the 2015 article, Schlumberger speaks two sentences that show that he is a glass-half- full type, a fighter even: "It didn't take much and I would have ended up in a wheelchair forever" and: "I want to get back into the art market. He now lives with his husband, who has a He runs a consultancy firm and has been together with him since 1997, as well as two rough-haired dachshunds in Pully on Lake Geneva; his studio is in Zurich Wiedikon. His strict father died in 2014, his mother this year. But when you meet Louis Schlumberger, you don't see a sick or sad man, let alone a broken one.
Weltwoche No. 48.24
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