Peinture. Alex Katz &
Félix Vallotton
The Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts sought to bring together the works of two painters who, at first glance, seem to have little in common: one, Franco-Swiss, was born in Lausanne in 1865, while the other, American, has been active for over sixty years, working in New York and Maine.
Painting. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton, the first major exhibition in French-speaking Switzerland dedicated to Alex Katz, presented over 40 works from this key contemporary artist, spanning from the 1950s to today. The exhibition paired Katz’s works with some thirty paintings by Félix Vallotton, creating an unprecedented dialogue that revealed striking similarities between these two major figures in international art.
Félix Vallotton was more relevant than ever. He was recently celebrated at the Kunstmuseum in Bern (Sunsets, 2004/05), as well as at the Kunsthaus in Zurich and the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Idyll at the Edge of the Abyss, 2007/08). The Musée d’Orsay in Paris dedicated a major retrospective to him in the fall of 2013, his first in the French capital. The Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, however, possesses the world’s largest collection of Vallotton’s works, with more than 500 pieces (including drawings and prints). To highlight this collection in its own walls—since it currently lacks permanent exhibition spaces for the collections—the museum envisioned making it dialogue with the work of one of the most well-known American painters. Vallotton’s modernity no longer needed demonstration. However, in the light of Katz’s work, it emerged once again in all its relevance.
Born in 1927, Alex Katz is a major figure in American painting in the second half of the 20th century. His resolutely figurative work focuses on classic subjects such as individual or group portraits, natural and urban landscapes, and flower still lifes. In the early 1960s, his work became associated with Pop Art due to his neutral technique, which was close to advertising imagery and cinematic framing. Focusing on smooth, effect-free, often monumental painting, with simplification of shapes and planes and a reduced color palette, Katz’s work extends Vallotton’s painting and pushes it to the edges of abstraction. Félix Vallotton never inspired Alex Katz, and the American painter is not particularly familiar with Vallotton’s work. Among the artists he admires, he mentions Pierre Bonnard and Jackson Pollock. Yet, surprising similarities were discovered between the two artists, as their intent is the same: to elevate through painting. through the simplification of forms and planes and the reduction of the palette, extending Vallotton’s painting to the fringes of abstraction. Of the painters that have
inspired Alex Katz, two that stand out are Pierre Bonnard and Jackson Pollock. Félix Vallotton, however, is not on the list nor was his work ever really known by the American. Nevertheless, surprising similarities are apparent between the two artists as their approach is identical: ennoblement through painting.
The exhibition has been supported by
