Vallotton. The Ingenious Laboratory

In conjunction with Vallotton Forever, featuring the artist’s masterpieces, this small-format show focuses on the origins of Félix Vallotton’s work, exploring the various phases of his growing output in a surprising range of mediums, including illustration, engraving, painting, even writing.

Drawing on the extensive collections of the artist’s work in MCBA and the Félix Vallotton Foundation, the show explores the different techniques used by the artist throughout his career and the creative processes that are specific to each of them. This dynamic approach places the preparatory work and the completed works of art in dialogue, offering a novel look at Vallotton’s methods as well as the evolution of his artistic thinking.

We are pleased to invite the public to discover a selection of the artist’s sketchbooks, tokens of his research campaigns in the field in preparation for the landscape paintings. More elaborate drawings, along with photographs, allow us to grasp the origins and construction of complex and ambitious compositions. The displays also bring to light his work as an engraver in copper and wood, with preparatory drawings, matrices, working proofs and definitive prints.

The show also looks to highlight Vallotton’s activities as an illustrator and newspaper draughtsman. Step by step, we follow the different phases of the printing process, from the original drawing right up to publication in books and periodicals. Finally, the display of manuscripts and writings reveals yet another facet of Vallotton, the literary output of a man who was not only a visual artist, but also an author and art critic.

This event is on view in conjunction with the Vallotton Forever retrospective at the museum, offering an overall immersive look at a life wholly devoted to making art.

Curators: Catherine Lepdor, chief curator, MCBA, and Katia Poletti, curator of the Félix Vallotton Foundation, Lausanne. With the generous assistance of Stéphane Pétermann, head of research at Centre des littératures en Suisse romande (UNIL).