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20/3/2013

Alex Katz & Felix Vallotton

Musee cantonal des Beaux-Arts MCBA, Lausanne

Curators:
Bernard Fibicher, director
Camille Lévêque-Claudet

“When I showed Alex Katz reproductions of the paintings of Félix Vallotton compared to his own, he kept on exclaiming, ‘But what a wonderful painter!’ And, with regard to the evident similarities between them, ‘It’s incredible!’ Something passed through the heads of these two artists – who came from utterly different eras, cultures and environments – in which painting became something of a cosa mentale, that is to say when an idea or pictorial concept takes precedence over the execution or visual result. It goes without saying that neither Katz nor Vallotton are conceptual artists but both subject nature and the human figure to a very particular vision and a manifestly anti-naturalist treat- ment through the practice of a sort of painting for painting’s sake. Both accept that a painting is foremost an assemblage of lines and blocks of colour on a flat surface.”
Bernard Fibicher, Peinture. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton, « Deux peintres singuliers – la Peinture en commun », published by the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts (Lau- sanne) and 5 Continents (Milan), 2013.

The Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts will present the art of two painters that one would immediately expect to be quite different: one, a French Swiss born in Lau- sanne in 1865, and the other, an American who is still very active and has worked in New York and Maine for more than sixty years.

On Painting. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton will be the first museum exhibition in French-speaking Switzerland of the work of Alex Katz. It will present more than 40 works by this major contemporary artist, ranging from the 1950s to the present day.

The exhibition will compare the works of the American with 30 or so paintings by Félix Vallotton: this joint presentation will offer a completely new perspective on the astonishing similarity between these two key figures of international painting.

Félix Vallotton (1865-1925) is more than ever in the contemporary eye. His work was recently shown at the Kunstmuseum in Berne (Sunsets, 2004/05), the Kuns- thaus in Zurich and the Hamburger Kunsthalle (Idyll on the Edge, 2007/08). And in autumn 2013 the Musée d’Orsay in Paris will dedicate a large retrospective to his work, the first in the French capital. With more than 500 works (including drawings and prints), the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts de Lausanne holds the largest Vallotton collection in the world. So as to show it off to best effect within its own walls, as it does not currently have the space to present the collection as a whole, the museum has decided to show the Vallotton works side by side with those of one of the best-known American painters. Vallotton’s modernity no longer has to be made plain: when shown alongside the work of Alex Katz, it springs to the eye even today.

Born in 1927, Alex Katz is a major figure of late 20th-century American painting. His resolutely figurative art centres on such traditional genres as individual and group portraits, natural and urban landscapes, and floral still-lifes, and in the early 1960s he was associated with Pop Art on account of his very neutral technique that is close to advertising images and cinema stills. Making particular use of a deadpan, detached and often monumental approach, his representations are elaborated 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.

On Painting. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton contains chapters dedicated to nocturnes, waterscapes (seas, rivers, lakes and their reflections), portraits and nudes. Half of the works by Félix Vallotton to be shown come from the collections of the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts; the other half has been lent from private collections and a few public institutions. Alex Katz was actively involved in the selection of his works and has made available paintings from his private collection, some of which, works on panel in particular, are only rarely seen by the public. The remainder of his works to be shown come from private collections in Germany, Spain and Italy.

In parallel, the Haus Konstruktiv in Zurich will be presenting Alex Katz – Landscapes (7.03–12.05.2013)

PUBLICATION:
Peinture. Alex Katz & Félix Vallotton
Texts by Bernard Fibicher, Catherine Lepdor, Camille Lévêque-Claudet and Eric de Chassey (in French). 104 pages, 24 x 28 cm, 74 colour ills.
Published jointly by the Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne and 5 Continents, Milan, 2013
Price: CHF 30.– / € 25.–
After the exhibition: CHF 35.– / € 30.–

Image: Alex Katz, Sunset 1, 2008, oil on canvas, 274 x 213,5 cm, collection of the artist ©2013, ProLitteris, Zurich

Media contact:
Loïse Cuendet phone number: +41 (0)21 316 34 48 loise.cuendet@vd.ch

Press conference on Thursday, 21 March 2013 at 11 am
Opening reception Thursday 21 March 2013 at 6.30 pm

Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
Palais de Rumine, place de la Riponne 6 CH-1014 Lausanne
Hours:
Tuesday to Wednesday: 11 am – 6 pm
Thursday: 11 am - 8 pm
Friday to Sunday: 11 am – 5 pm
Closed on Monday
Good Friday (29 March) and Ascension Day (9 May): 11 am – 5 pm
Admission:
Adults: CHF 10.–
Pensioners, students, apprentices: CHF 8.–
Under 16: free
1st Saturday of each month: free

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