2023-09-21 09:15:04
The Pully Art Museum is exhibiting the Neuchâtel artist Emilienne Farny (1938-2014), pioneer of pop art in Switzerland, under the title “Le regard absolu”. An exhibition which takes a mercilessly ironic look at a certain Switzerland, that of hedges and cedars lined up in a straight line.
Almost ten years following her death in 2014, the Neuchâtel native Emilienne Farny, a notable figure in contemporary Swiss painting, is being given a first retrospective. An initiative of the Pully Art Museum and the art historian Michel Thévoz, his companion.
After studying at the Ecole cantonale des beaux-arts in Lausanne, Emilienne Farny left for Paris in the 1960s. On her return ten years later, the artist’s paintings are both shocking and critical. compared to the narrow Switzerland of the time: villas with perfect contours, hedges and clean gardens in order. A true “Swiss Happiness”, which becomes the name of the first series which will make it known to the public.
American Westerns and pop art
“During her years in Paris, Emilienne Farny worked in several professions. She was a fashion illustrator, designer, dancer and model,” explains Laurent Langer, co-curator of the exhibition, to RTS. Besides that, she painted. She loves cinema, discovers American westerns and pop art in Parisian galleries. She frequents artists of the time, particularly through the new figuration movement.”
A vibrant life interrupted in 1972, when he returned to Switzerland. Inspired by artists like Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol or Edward Hopper, Emilienne Farny creates work with the full palette of pop art. His favorite subject being urbanity, Parisian buildings, streets and cranes adorn his paintings. Then at the end of the 1980s, humans appeared in his series “Alone”. She paints men from behind, their gaze shifting, in parking lots, garages and warehouses. Perhaps as a showcase of his own sadness and his distance from the world.
The inaccessible gaze
“Emilienne Farny works from photos for all her paintings. The refusal of the exchange of glances between her models and the spectators that we are further adds to this distancing. This is exactly what we see in her series entitled ‘ The look’, where each model wears sunglasses. It’s the only time where the characters face the spectators, but they refuse us access to their gaze”, concludes Laurent Langer.
TV topic: Chloé Steulet
Web adaptation: Myriam Semaani with ats
Emilienne Farny, “The absolute gaze”, Pully Art Museum, until December 3, 2023.
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