Exhibitions
Émile Chambon & Louise de Vilmorin A fruitful friendship
from February 24 to June 26, 2022
In 1961, while she was visiting Geneva, Louise de Vilmorin was taken away by one of her friends, who wanted her to discover the work of Émile Chambon, in the latter's studio. The visit should be quick, but the woman of letters fell in love with the painter's works. Thus begins a deep friendship that binds the two intellectuals, a kind of artistic love at first sight.
In 1961, Louise de Vilmorin wrote a dithyrambic preface for the catalog of the exhibition devoted to Chambon in Paris, at the Galerie Motte. She also acquired a certain number of works and the painter, for his part, executed several drawings featuring her.
The Carouge Museum (re)discovers the multiple talents of these extraordinary personalities and brings together paintings, drawings, letters and documents, photographs and films that highlight a sincere friendship, linking two very different figures.
Fernand Dubuis
The genius of color
from November 11, 2021 to January 16, 2022
A major figure in abstract painting in the 20th century, the Valaisan Fernand Dubuis nevertheless remains little known to the general public both in Switzerland, his country of origin, and in France where he spent most of his life, between Paris, Gordes and Normandy.
Deeply attached to the history of painting, Dubuis seeks, throughout his career, to create works that embrace the trends of his time, while integrating references from the past, in particular through a very particular attention paid to a fine bill of his work. In his early days, he devoted a similar admiration to his contemporaries Fernand Léger or Roger de La Fresnaye and to the old masters, especially Caravaggio and Francisco de Zurbarán. His painting then related him to the “baroque” expressiveness and the colorful post-cubism of André Lhote.
The Russo Yubero gallery presents in its exhibition some of the most important pieces of his last period and never exhibited since the artist's death.
Fernand Dubuis
The genius of color
from November 11, 2021 to January 16, 2022
A major figure in abstract painting in the 20th century, the Valaisan Fernand Dubuis nevertheless remains little known to the general public both in Switzerland, his country of origin, and in France where he spent most of his life, between Paris, Gordes and Normandy.
Deeply attached to the history of painting, Dubuis seeks, throughout his career, to create works that embrace the trends of his time, while integrating references from the past, in particular through a very particular attention paid to a fine bill of his work. In his early days, he devoted a similar admiration to his contemporaries Fernand Léger or Roger de La Fresnaye and to the old masters, especially Caravaggio and Francisco de Zurbarán. His painting then related him to the “baroque” expressiveness and the colorful post-cubism of André Lhote.
The Russo Yubero gallery presents in its exhibition some of the most important pieces of his last period and never exhibited since the artist's death.
Erich Hermes
Selected works
Aubert Jansem Gallery, Carouge
from September 3 to September 30, 2021
Known for his work as a poster artist and his decorations integrated into architecture, Erich Hermès (1881-1971) is one of the most important Geneva painters of the first half of the 20th century. Close to Ferdinand Hodler, whose work had a profound effect on his young years, he switched to New Objectivity and adopted a style that would be his own and that he would evolve throughout his life.
If Hermès is fond of monumental art, he does not neglect easel painting in which he expresses himself with the same sensitivity, whether he paints a battle scene or the portrait of his two children.
In addition to Switzerland (we find him in Geneva as well as in Valais or even in the canton of Uri), he frequently stays in Paris and Spain, destinations that will largely mark his work.
André Sugnaux
Russian passions
from June 3 to October 3, 2021
The painter André Sugnaux is the first foreign member admitted to the Union of Russian Artists. Through travels and encounters, the artist from Siviriez produced numerous sketches, portraits and landscapes. Transformed by this experience of elsewhere, he introduces colors and patterns inspired by Russia into his representations of the Friborg countryside.
He also explores with great humanity the theme of the gulags of which he transcribes, through drawing and painting, the memory of the victims. The exhibition presents in particular a key work of this series, a project not carried out for diplomatic reasons which is exhibited for the first time: a frieze of several meters which should have been displayed in a gulag memorial in Alzhir, Kazakstan
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of a magazine with texts by Philippe Clerc and Monique Durussel, curators of the exhibition.
Hiram Brülhart
Painting Ambassador
Headquarters of the Cantonal Bank of Friborg
from February 21 to March 28, 2019
Ernest Hiram Hrülhart is one of the outstanding figures of painting in the first half of the 20th century. A great traveller, he follows his diplomat friend, Ambassador René de Weck, on his missions. We find Brülhart in Norway, in Paris and Saint-Tropez, in Venice, then in Romania from where each time he brings back views inspired by the places he discovers. His style tends towards simplification and the painter tends to make disappear more and more the non-essential details for the good understanding of his canvases.
The artist is also recognized for his talents as a portrait painter who imposes him on the personalities of his time, intellectuals and Friborg patrician families.
Exhibition in connection with the publication of a monothematic issue of the review Pro Fribourg.
Jean Cocteau
Jean Mauboules
APCd Foundation, Marly (FR)
from March 17 to July 9, 2017
Important similarities bind Jean Cocteau and the sculptor Jean Mauboulès who express themselves through lines and curves with very diverse shapes.
When Cocteau traces the contours of a face by drawing only the essential shapes, Mauboulès forges iron and models glass to produce abstract, three-dimensional profiles that evoke certain figures of his illustrious compatriot.
The paralleling of works by the two Jean makes it possible to explain these links within an atypical staging combining originals and photographic prints.
Collecting
and more
APCd Foundation, Marly (FR)
from November 11, 2016 to February 12, 2017
The project develops around the passion of the collector. A way of immersing oneself in a behavior specific to artistic creation that one could almost sometimes qualify as pathological. Pierre Eichenberger's career is the starting point for this opportunity to show a whole part of the APCd collection, together with a series of photographs by Jean-Michel Voge.
To believe that the desire to possess constitutes the sole stimulation of the collector is certainly a gross error. For some there is the desire to archive, for others the desire to participate in the conservation of a heritage, still others will see in it a cartography of their personal journey.
The APCd foundation has chosen to open its collection to the public as one would visit a book.
Oswald Pilloud
The landscape for passion
Gruyère Museum, Bulle
from March 12 to August 28, 2016
Landscape painter, pupil and friend of Ferdinand Hodler, Oswald Pilloud (1873-1946) took his classes in Friborg from 1896 to 1899. Encouraged by Hodler to pursue this artistic path, he went to Paris where he frequented the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, as well as the Académie Colarossi, and was inspired by Nabis painters. He then returned to Switzerland where he taught at the cantonal Technicum of Fribourg.
The hanging presents an overview of his painting, mainly landscapes executed both in the Friborg countryside and on the shores of Lake Geneva, in Valais, but also in France.
Exhibition in connection with the publication of a monothematic issue of the review Pro Fribourg.
Walter Mafli
centenary
Abbey Museum, Payerne
from March 15 to May 25, 2015
Born in 1915, in Rebstein (SG), Walter Mafli was placed very early in an orphanage. Noticed by a drawing teacher, aware of his talent, he was encouraged to continue on this path. Forced to earn a living as soon as possible, he was unable to continue these studies and began an apprenticeship as a stove-smoker and then as a tiler. In 1934, he moved to Neuchâtel where he frequented the painters Edouard Galli, the Barraud brothers, and L'Eplattenier. He takes advantage of their teaching by accompanying them to paint in nature. It will be the beginning of a long and brilliant career.
Built in the form of a retrospective, the exhibition presents sets of figurative and abstract works from private collections and the artist's studio.
Erni, Mafli, Amiet, Bosshard, Buchet...
Tribute to the Véandre Gallery in Payerne (1944-1978)
Abbey Museum, Payerne
from February 9 to June 9, 2014
It was opposite the Abbey of Payerne that a pleasant little lounge became, in 1944, the artistic center of the city. Created on the initiative of the painter and bookseller André Vuilleumier, active under the pseudonym of Véandre, the gallery unfolds in two rooms of his apartment where he regularly organizes exhibitions. Renowned painters, sculptors and engravers from Switzerland and elsewhere have thus contributed to the recognition of Payerne and its small gallery for more than 30 years.
To celebrate the 70th anniversary of its creation, the Abbey Museum pays tribute to it by exhibiting artists who have contributed to its reputation, as well as a selection of engravings published by Vuilleumier and sold to support its exhibition space.
The exhibition is accompanied by the publication of a catalog with a text by Philippe Clerc.
