Paul Nizon is the son of a Russian chemist and a mother born in Bern. He studied History of Art, Classic Archaeology and German Culture at the universities of Bern and Munich. In 1957 he was awarded a PhD in History of Art for his paper on Vincent van Gogh’s early drawing style, an investigation into artistic form and its relations to psychology and Weltanschauung.
In 1961, Nizon worked as leading art critic for the Neue Zürcher Zeitung. Nizon, who has been living in Paris for over thirty years, and working as a writer since 1962.
Paul Nizon has received numerous awards and prizes, including the »German Critics Prize for Literature« in 1989, the »Suhrkamp Foundation’s Torello Prize« and, most recently, the »Kranichsteiner Literature Prize of the German Literature Foundation«.
