Fritz Strebel

Born December 21, 1920 in Gontenschwil, and died June 17, 1997 in Zofingen.

Hometown Buttwil AG.

Painter and retoucher. Painting, stone engraving, etching, mosaic, stained glass, drawing, wall painting, glass painting, engraving.

Fritz Strebel grew up in Bottenwil, where he also attended primary school; he attended the municipal school in Zofingen. Very early on, he showed a desire to paint; in 1937, he took private lessons in the studio of Max Paul Linck in Zurich. From 1938 to 1941, he apprenticed as a retoucher with Ringier. In 1942/43, he took evening classes at the Zurich School of Applied Arts with Ernst Georg Rüegg and Max Gubler. Between 1944-1962, he worked as a retoucher at Ringier; moreover, the activity of painter became more and more important. In 1945 he married Hanni König, with whom he later had four children. From 1947 to 1974 he worked as a professor of drawing and art history at the Zofingen business school; The history of art was introduced by him (one of his students was Hugo Suter). In the early 1950s, Emil Bertschi, Karl Blatter, Heinrich Gisler and Fritz Strebel founded the artist group “Freie Gruppe Zofingen”, whose members were mostly Ringier employees; it was an association of artists from the Zofingen region which, unlike the GSMBA Aargau, advocated new forms of expression. In 1952 he built a house with a workshop in Brittnau. In 1960, he joined the GSMBA Aargau. Breast received its first public commission from the Zofingen Nature Museum; he had to set up various portraits of life in shop windows.