Paul Nizon (born 19 December 1929 in
Bern) is a Swiss
art historian and writer.[1]
Biography
The son of a Russian chemist and a
Swiss mother,[2] after leaving school he studied history of art, classical archaeology and German language and literature in the universities of
Bern and
Munich. He obtained his doctorate in 1957 with a thesis on
Vincent van Gogh. He worked as an assistant at the Historisches Museum in Bern until 1959. In 1960, he was awarded a scholarship at the
Swiss Institute in Rome. In 1961, he was a leading art critic of the
Neue Zürcher Zeitung.[2] Since 1962 Nizon, who has lived in Paris since 1977,[3] has been a freelance writer. He has held various guest lectureships, including in 1984 in the
University of Frankfurt am Main and 1987 in
Washington University in St. Louis. Nizon's estate is archived in the
Swiss Literary Archives in
Bern.
Selected bibliography
Die gleitenden Plätze (1959)
Canto (Suhrkamp, 1963)
Diskurs in der Enge (1970)
Im Hause enden die Geschichten (Suhrkamp, 1971)
Untertauchen. Protokoll einer Reise (Suhrkamp, 1972)
Stolz (Suhrkamp, 1975)
Das Jahr der Liebe (Suhrkamp, 1981). My Year of Love, trans. Jean M. Snook (Dalkey Archive, 2013)
Im Bauch des Wals (Suhrkamp, 1989)
Hund (Suhrkamp, 1998)
Abschied von Europa (Suhrkamp, 2003)
Das Fell der Forelle (Suhrkamp, 2005)
Journals
Die Innenseite des Mantels. Journal 1980–1989 (Suhrkamp, 1995)
Die Erstausgaben der Gefühle. Journal 1961–1972 (Suhrkamp, 2002)
Das Drehbuch der Liebe. Journal 1973–1979 (Suhrkamp, 2004)
Die Zettel des Kuriers. Journal 1990–1999 (Suhrkamp, 2008)