
“Fisherman’s wife on the pontoon”, 1909, collection Mu.ZEE, long term private loan, photo Hugo Maertens, Cedric Verhelst, Steven Decroos
The French used to go to Switzerland to ski and to check their bank accounts. Now they go for the exhibitions. Last week end saw a series of brilliant openings in Geneva, Lausanne, Montricher and Basel and the train from Paris was fun to ride as you met art curators and collectors, all eager to see the enlarged ArtGenève show which was attended by a variety of galleries including Magnum, Ratton-Ladrière, Templon and Thaddaeus Ropac. I personally loved the Léon Spilliaert exhibition at Fondation de l’Hermitage in Lausanne until May 29. This Belgian painter from Ostende is unknown to many people who have not seen his retrospective in 2020 at musée d’Orsay where I discovered his work. He is definitely worth the trip… And so is the Colette exhibition at Fondation Jan Michalski, a writer’s retreat in the country side. I did not get to the Wayne Thiebaud show at Fondation Beyeler but did visit the new museums of plateforme 10 by the Lausanne train station and sadly learned there about Thierry Barbier-Mueller‘s sudden death at 62 on January 24. His collection of chairs is displayed at Musée du Design mudac with a sound installation by Bob Wilson . Read More