Pictures for School

Swiss Artist Hans Fischer has built a major career out of a wealth of minor achievements. He began with posters and cartoons, went on to postage-stamp designs, children's-book illustrations, sets and costumes for cabaret shows, and, lately, murals for primary schools (see cuts). Because Fischer approaches each job with the wholehearted enthusiasm most artists reserve for self-expression on the grand scale, he gets results that will easily outlive the general run of more pretentious work. He also succeeds in expressing his own amiable nature with wit and grace.

Artist Fischer, 46, is a little man with rosy cheeks, a ready laugh and a happy family (two girls and a boy). He lives in a farming village overlooking Lake Zurich, spends his free days sketching in the woods and fields, fishing, and tootling a clarinet when evening falls. He has painted 14 school murals in the past few years, finds the work a welcome antidote to "the eternity complex which may befall an artist and cramp his style."

Schoolhouses, Fischer explains, "are not built to last for centuries. So instead of trying to raise a monument to himself, the artist can concentrate on giving pleasure to young people. Children have much more imagination than we assume. It's a good idea to paint when school is open and the place is teeming with kids. If the children start climbing the ladder to offer advice and criticism, you know you're on the right track."

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