{{Short description|Swiss painter}} {{Infobox artist | name = Ricco | image = | image_size = | caption = | birth_name = Erich Wassmer | adoptedname = | birth_date = {{Birth date|1915|10|13|df=yes}} | birth_place = Allschwil, Switzerland | death_date = {{Death date and age|1972|3|27|1915|10|13|df=yes}} | death_place = Ropraz, Switzerland | known_for = Painting | training = Cuno Amiet | movement = Magic realism | notable_works = ''Dîner au château'' ({{circa}} 1934)<br>''Pereoo Faraoa'' ({{circa}} 1948)<br>''Saint-Pourçain'' ({{circa}} 1951)<br>''Le cadre'' ({{circa}} 1954)<br>''Le beau cheval'' ({{circa}} 1966) | patrons = | awards = }}

'''Ricco''' (October 13, 1915 &ndash; March 27, 1972), born '''Erich Wassmer''', was a Swiss painter. His paintings often depict idealizing dream worlds in the genre of magic realism.

==Life== Erich Wassmer was born in Allschwil into an upper-class environment, the son of cement factory owner and art patron ''Max Wassmer'' (1887–1970).<ref>{{cite web |author=Alexandra Stäheli |publisher=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |url=http://www.nzz.ch/2002/09/30/fe/article8EIW8.html |title=Surreale Südsee-Sehnsucht, gestillt ("Ricco" - ein filmisches Künstlerporträt von Mike Wildbolz) |language=German |date=30 September 2002 |access-date=4 December 2011 |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20090201184704/http://www.nzz.ch/2002/09/30/fe/article8EIW8.html |archivedate=1 February 2009 }}</ref> From the age of 3 he grew up at Bremgarten Castle near Bern, which was filled with art and culture. Max and Tilli-Wassmer-Zurlinden socialised with poets, painters and composers such as Hermann Hesse, Louis Moilliet, Cuno Amiet, Paul Basilius Barth and Othmar Schoeck. Early on Erich Wassmer was interested in the art of painting. The family encouraged his artistic talent and his interest in art, literature and music, after the continuation of the parental cement factory had been secured by his two brothers. Wassmer marked the end of his childhood with a new name: From 1937 onwards Erich Wassmer signed his paintings with Ricco — a name like a magic word — instead of the name of his well-known industrialist and philanthropist father. Ricco studied in Munich and Paris, and was taught by Cuno Amiet. However, the influence of his teachers remained marginal. Ricco was fascinated by the sea, as well as by the desire to explore lost paradises and undiscovered territories. He had the symbol of an anchor tattooed on his arm and added this symbol henceforth to his signature on his paintings. During the forties, he crossed the ocean on a freighter, and lived for a while in Tahiti. In the fifties he settled at Bompré Castle near Vichy. In 1963, the French police discovered in his studio photos of nude boys who served as the basis for his paintings. A French court convicted him — without a formal indictment — of sexual "exploitation" of young boys and breach of the morality to eight-months in prison. Ricco never recovered completely from this prison sentence.<ref>{{cite web |author=Ursula Sinnreich |publisher=Neue Zürcher Zeitung |url=http://www.nzz.ch/2003/01/03/fe/article8GLY3.html |archive-url=https://archive.today/20120919040218/http://www.nzz.ch/2003/01/03/fe/article8GLY3.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=19 September 2012 |title=Denn alle Lust will Ewigkeit (Ricco - ein Aussenseiter im Kunstmuseum Bern) |language=German |date=3 January 2003 |access-date=24 November 2011 }}</ref> Following his release, Ricco returned to Switzerland and settled in a mansion in Ropraz. He died there in 1972 at the age of 56.<ref>{{cite web |author=Isabelle Falconnier |publisher=L'Hebdo|url=http://www.hebdo.ch/ricco_wassmer_26983_.html |title=Ricco Wassmer. Le peintre s'est arrêté à Ropraz |language=French |date=9 October 2008 |access-date=26 November 2011}}</ref> Until his death Ricco Wassmer remained a family shareholder in the Portland-Cement-Werke AG.

==Work== Ricco's early work (e.g. his paintings of castle life) can be classified as primitivist, while his mature work includes still lifes, harbor scenes, exotic motifs and allegorical figures. He often painted dream worlds in the style of magic realism with lean boys surrounded by surreal arrangements. Ricco's paintings reveal his longing for a state of androgynous, youthful perfection. Ricco's work "is anchored in everyday reality, but has overtones of fantasy or wonder" creating a surreal atmosphere.<ref>[http://www.artcyclopedia.com/history/magic-realism.html Artcyclopedia]</ref>

==Exhibitions== *1953 Kunsthalle Bern *1969 Kunsthalle Bern *1988 Aargauer Kunsthaus *2002/2003 Museum of Fine Arts Bern *2008 Fondation l'Estrée<ref>[http://www.estree.ch/exposition_080912/080912_ricco_wassmer.pdf Ricco Wassmer - Fondation Estrée] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120426020652/http://www.estree.ch/exposition_080912/080912_ricco_wassmer.pdf |date=2012-04-26 }}</ref> *2009 Museum of Fine Arts Bern *2015/2016 Museum of Fine Arts Bern<ref>[http://www.kunstmuseumbern.ch/en/sehen/heute/495-ricco-wassmer-%281915-1972%29--120.html Museum of Fine Arts Bern]</ref>

==References== <references />

== External links == {{wikiquote}} {{commons|Ricco Wassmer}} *[http://www.kunstmuseumbern.ch/index.cfm?nav=1245,1398,1805&DID=9&SID=2 Ricco] Catalogue raisonné by Museum of Fine Arts Bern *[http://www.artknowledgenews.com/ricco-wassmer-new-works.html Ricco Wassmer ~ New Works in the Collection of the Kunstmuseum Bern Opens] *{{SIKART|4026071}} *[https://archive.today/20130130090846/http://movies.nytimes.com/movie/273214/Ricco/overview The New York Times] *{{IMDb title|qid=Q50329452|id=tt0385991|title=Ricco}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ricco}} Category:1915 births Category:1972 deaths Category:20th-century Swiss painters Category:Swiss male painters Category:20th-century Swiss male artists Category:Pseudonymous painters