Julia Ris


Julia Ris was a Swiss painter, sculptor, and graphic artist. She taught materials and drawing at the Gewerbeschule Basel, where she introduced students, including Jean Tinguely, to early 20th-century artistic movements such as Dada, Abstraction, and the Bauhaus.

Early life and education

Julia Ries was born on the 21 September 1904, to a German Jewish family in Kingston upon Hull. Ris' father, Gustav Ries, was an importer and later owned a millinery factory, whilst Ris' mother, Agnes Ries née Siblerman, was a housewife and artist. Ris had four siblings, the youngest of which was the American metal artist Victor Ries. The family returned to Germany sometime between 1905-1907 and settled in Berlin.

Education

From 1921-1925, Ris was educated at the Kunstgewerbeschule and the Academy of [Arts, Berlin|Academy of Fine Arts] in Berlin. In 1925, Ris married Swiss artist Theo Eble, a fellow classmate at the Academy of Fine Arts. Ris and Eble and moved to Eble's hometown of Basel, where Ris began to develop her work toward abstraction and reliefs. In 1935 their daughter, Doris Eva Eble, was born.
According to Jean Tinguely, both Ris and Eble studied at Bauhaus.

Career

From 1930-1957, Ris taught at the Gewerbeschule Basel applied arts department and sporadically created her own artworks. Ris' "material studies" class was based on the concepts of Bauhaus, and introduced students to the concept of creating collages using scrap and found materials such as metal, wood or cloth. Ris' students included Beatrice Afflerbach and Jean Tinguely. Ris is credited with introducing Tinguely to the work of Kurt Schwitters, Paul Klee, and to other artists interested in representations of movement.
Ris was a member of the ″Allianz, Vereinigung moderner Schweizer Künstler″, and exhibited with the group in 1947. In 1956, Ris married the Swiss artist In 1967, Ris and Held were joint artists-in-residence at the Cité internationale des arts From 1970-1977 Ris taught at the Technical University of Basel, and lived in Sissach.

Filmography