Marianne Eigenheer: A Lifelong Search Along the Lines

Marianne Eigenheer (1945–2018, Swiss) was a renowned artist and active academic whose work has been exhibited across Europe, Australia 

and the United States. As a child, Marianne’s parents had aspirations for her to become a pianist, although she wanted to become a composer. Instead, she began drawing and painting after finishing school and went to art college in Lucerne, Switzerland. 

Marianne’s work was featured in Achille Bonito Oliva and Harald Szeemann’s seminal Venice Biennale exhibition Aperto ’80 in 1980, as well as in numerous solo and group exhibitions in Germany – Bonner Kunstverein, Volker Diehl, Galerie Volker Diehl, Zeppelinmuseum and Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst; in the US – Holly Solomon Gallery and the Swiss Institute in New York; and at the Manege Central Exhibition Hall in St Petersberg, Russia, Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts (PICA) in Australia, and the Meguro Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan. Her work has also been exhibited in Switzerland – at sic! Raum für Kunst in Lucerne, von Bartha in Basel, and at the Kunstmuseum Basel in 2018.

During her academic career, Marianne was Professor and Director of the Institute for Curatorship and Education at Edinburgh College of Art, where she was granted an honorary professorship in 2009, having worked previously at several universities and art colleges, including the University of Art and Design, Offenbach, and the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart.