Musée d'Ethnographie: MRA-CHE-Neu001

Covering an area of 27x7 meters on the façade of the Neuchâtel Ethnographic Museum, the “Conquests of Man” (French: Les conquêtes de l'homme) is a fresco executed over a period of 3 months by Hans Erni. The mural was finished in 1954, but restorations were already undertaken in collaboration with the artist between 1982 and 1986. The theme of the frescoes is technology and progress towards a future in which man is free from menial labor. The painting is organized chronologically along the vertical axis and geographically along the horizontal axis, and attempts to address all of human history, writ large. Executed in a combination of brilliant and somber tones, with the figural components overlapping and depicted at a variety of scales, the fresco is at once complex in its composition, and optimistic in its message.

Source:

https://www.men.ch/fr/histoires/le-musee/peintures-exterieures/

Further reading:

Pancella, R., Furlan, V., Girardet, F., & Stähli, M. Conservation de la fresque de Hans Erni au Musée d'Ethnographie de Neuchâtel-Suisse-études préliminaires. In ICOM committee for conservation: 8th triennial meeting, Sydney, Australia, 6-11 September, 1987. Preprints (Vol. 2, pp. 771-778).

Stähli, M. Itinéraire d'une fresque monumentale contemporaine: la fresque extérieure de Hans Erni au Musée d'ethnographie de Neuchâtel. Conservation et rénovation, destin d'une restauration. In Analyses et conservation d'oeuvres d'art monumentales (pp. 51-66).