Hans Gerber (1910-1978) was a Swiss artist whose work has been rarely exhibited outside his native country and is best known for his idiosyncratic collages. He attended the Kirchenfeld Gymnasium in Bern, Switzerland graduating in 1930. From 1930 to 1932 he studied English at the Universities of Bern, Lausanne and Munich. Under the influence of the work of sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Gerber discovered his own artistic talent and entered the studio of sculptor Hans Stangl in Munich. In 1934 he settled in Ascona and created his first portraits and small sculptures. In 1934 he moved to Zurich, where he met the sculptor Hermann Haller. He became a member of the "Society of Swiss Painters, Sculptors and Architects" and took part in the exhibitions "Young Switzerland" at the Kunsthaus Zurich and "Young Bernese Artists" at the Kunsthalle Bern. His first solo exhibitions followed in the Galerie Palette in Zurich. In 1950 he moved to Buchillon on Lake Geneva with his partner, the writer, watercolorist, and draftsman Hans Walter, who later authored a monograph about Gerber’s work. From 1950 to 1954 Gerber turned away from figuration toward pure abstraction, while also adding color to his work. These new developments would, in the mid-1950s, lead him to his signature medium for the next two decades: collage, a form of artistic expression that he continued to develop in a variety of ways until his death.

Hans Walter elaborates on the role collage would play in Gerber’s life and work: “Paper, whether plain or printed, smooth or rough, soon became for him the most important, if not the only, means of expressing his inner wealth of images.”