Biographical Data
Born in Berne, Switzerland, in 1944. He lives and works between Europe and Tucson, U.S.A. Olivier Mosset studies art in Lausanne and later works with Jean Tinguely. He settles in Paris in 1965. In 1967 he founds the BMPT and declares that “painting starts with Buren, Mosset, Parmentier, Toroni”. His first individual exhibition takes place in 1968 in Paris. In 1990, he represents Switzerland in the Venice Biennale.
Brief Chronology
From 1966 to 1974, Olivier Mosset paints the same radical painting, he paints a black circle with a diameter of 15 cm in the middle of a squared white canvas (2.5 x 2.5 m): “we had the idea of making minimalist paintings”. From 1973 to 1977 he makes his and modifies Daniel Buren’s stripes. In 1977 he begins a monochrome series: “monochrome has established itself through painting”. From 1985 to 1993 he works “with a scratching of the monochrome, a fracture” and feels the urge of crossing it out. He then turns to working in a collection of two-color geometrical abstractions. He paints gigantic canvases with bright colors and gives them self referential and ironic titles. He makes shaped canvases, creating variations of squares and other geometrical shapes (Cimaises, 2001; Orange Room, 2002). Lately he has painted monochrome works, often set up in multiple panels, of which he says: “What I try to make is paint, paintings which are no more than paint”. He creates sculptures made with circles of raw cement arches and ice (Toblerone, 1994-2006).
P.L.T.
www.fillesducalvaire.com
www.galeriecaratsch.com
www.susannakulli.ch
www.spencerbrownstonegallery.com
Hot Cake, 1988-2007,
Acrylic on canvas,
210 x 200 cm / 82,6 x 78,7 in