Hans Erni

Hans Erni was a Swiss painter, muralist, and graphic designer known for his government- and institution-commissioned works. His major projects included a 1936 mural Vacation Land of the People created for the National Exhibition of Zürich, and several Swiss postal stamps that were issued in 1975, 1986, and 2009.. Later in life, he completed works that were engraved onto Olympic medals, notably including the 1992 Olympic Summer Games Basketball Gold Medal awarded to the United States’ men’s basketball team. Erni was born on February 21, 1909, in Lucerne, Switzerland and studied art at the School of Applied Arts in Berlin where he developed an admiration for the work of Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso. Erni died at the age of 106 on March 21, 2015, in his hometown of Lucerne.