The son of an Austrian father and a Swiss mother, Hans Hinterreiter was born in Winterthur, Switzerland in 1902. He studied mathematics and architecture in college, at the University of Zurich; simultaneously, he studied art and music. This marriage of geometry and visual arts practices inspired Hinterreiter throughout his long career.

In his twenties, Hinterreiter traveled extensively throughout Europe. He was influenced by the quality of light and by the colors of Italy. A trip to Spain inspired an interest in Moorish architecture and ornamentation. The onset of the Spanish Civil War in the mid-1930s forced Hinterreiter's return to Switzerland, where he concentrated on writing and painting.

Hinterreiter settled p...