They have gone down in Swiss art history as the "triumvirate": the expressionist artists Johannes Robert Schürch (1895-1941), Ignaz. Epper (1892-1969) and Fritz Pauli (1891-1968). The name is controversial today, as the three painters created very different works overall, despite some similarities between their early works and biographical similarities. With the exhibition dedicated to Schürch in 1991, the Kunsthaus Zug began a series of exhibitions in which each year the work of a different Swiss expressionist or expressive artist of a later generation is put up for discussion. In 1992 the work of Ignaz Epper was commemorated in Zug, in 1993 Friedrich Kuhn was presented broadly and in 1994 it was the turn of the third artist of the "triumvirate", Fritz Pauli from Bern. As with Epper's, this exhibition is not a retrospective, but an attempt to compile exciting groups of works from the artist's outstanding creative periods. The exhibition contains paintings, watercolours and drawings as well as prints, to which Pauli owes his early fame, a total of around 120 works.

In the mid-twenties, painting became more important for Pauli, but before that he was mainly active as an etcher. The first focus of the exhibition is therefore Pauli's graphic work of the 190s and 1920s, especially his self-portraits and portraits. From 1931 to 1934 Pauli spent a particularly fruitful time in Amden for his painting. The result is a whole series of wonderful depictions of the Amden mountains. From his previous travels to the Swiss mountains, including Kirchner in Davos in 1925, to the French seashores, to Collioure in 1926, to Port Vendres in 1927, to Brittany in 1928 and from his stays in Paris, Pauli brings home vivid, expressive watercolours and chalk drawings based on the respective landscapes and architectures, of which we can show a selection. From 1934 until his death, Pauli lived in Cavigliano, where over the years a small settlement with two studio houses, a house and gardens was built. In 1935, the order for glass testers in the church in Oftringen marked the beginning of a series of large-scale commissions that took up Pauli's entire time over the next twenty years. From 1936 to 1938 he painted the chapel of the cantonal hospital in Zug, from 1939 to 1945 that of the Antonierhaus in Bern and from 1953 to 1956 that of the Bern town hall. The exhibition can only refer to these works in public space in the form of documents. A group of coloured glacier drawings from the 1950s and the 15 pencil and felt-tip drawings that Pauli created in Chandolin in 1964 conclude the exhibition. This group of works shows the late Pauli, whose content is reminiscent of his early depictions of landscapes.