Olivier Mosset (born 1944 in Bern, Switzerland) is a Switzerland visual arts.[ "Olivier Mosset: Biography" Campoli Presti Gallery, Retrieved 21 February 2014.] He lives and works in Tucson, Arizona.[
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Life and work
Olivier Mosset has spent considerable time in New York and Paris. In Paris in the 1960s he was a member of the BMPT (art group), along with Daniel Buren, Michel Parmentier, and Niele Toroni,[Schmerler, Sarah. "Olivier Mosset" Art in America, Retrieved 21 February 2014.] In the Fall 1968 edition of "The Paris Review" appeared "Reproductions of five paintings by Olivier Mosset." The five halftone photogravures of paintings of concentric circles centered on square grounds, reproduced the same size, looked identical.[Paris Review Vol 11, No 44, Fall 1968, pp 102-107]
Later, in New York in the late 1970s, Mosset undertook a long series of monochrome paintings, during the heyday of Neo-expressionism. He became a founding member of the New York Radical Painting group, radical referring both to an implied radical social stance, as well as a returning to the radical “root” of painting. This re-assertion of social relevance for abstraction, and even the monochrome, hadn't been emphasized to such a degree since Kazimir Malevich and Alexander Rodchenko.
In the 1980s neo-geo artists, such as Peter Halley who asserted a socially relevant, critical role for geometric abstraction, cited Mosset as an influence.
Mosset represented Switzerland at the 44th Venice Biennale in 1990 and participated in the Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art in New York in 2008.
In 2007, Olivier Mosset donated 171 works from his own collection to the Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds (MBAC) in Switzerland.
In 2012 the artist created stage designs for a ballet, entitled Sous Apparence, at the Paris Opera Ballet.[Sulcas, Rosyln. "A Shining Star at the Paris Opera Ballet" The New York Times, Retrieved 21 February 2014.]
Mosset's works are in the collections of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (MAMCO) in Geneva, and the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne, among other public collections.
Style
Mosset is inspired by abstract, conceptual, and minimalist art. He is well-recognized for his monochrome, shaped, minimalist paintings, in particular the series of over 200 oil paintings that were all identical.
Olivier Mosset coats his surfaces evenly with semigloss enamel - not so thick, however, that it entirely conceals the slub of the canvas beneath it - a big one all black, a smaller one all white. The hard enamel creates a shiny plane so light-catching that it tends to dematerialize as you look at it.
Mosset developed his own style, sometimes even using objects or walls
Mosset is also well known for his sculptures. From 1993 onwards he has created " Toblerones", which are meant to reference the Swiss anti-tank barrages and are also known worldwide as a type of chocolate of a very specific triangular shape by the name Toblerone. He exhibited a large selection of his Toblerones at his 2003 retrospective at the Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts in Lausanne.[Stroun, Fabrice. "Olivier Mosset" Frieze, Retrieved 21 January 2014.] In 2003, Mosset also created a version of Toberlones in ice for Eispavillon (Ice Pavilion) in Saas-Fee, Switzerland, presented the following year in 2004, at Art Unlimited in Art Basel.[ "eispavillion exhibition - Olivier Mosset"] In 2014, the artist re-created a version of his Toblerones in ice again for the Elevation 1049 exhibition in Gstaad.[ "Elevation 1049: Between Heaven and Hell" Mousse Contemporary Art Magazine, Retrieved 21 February 2014.]
Selected public collections
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Museum of Modern Art, New York, U.S.A.
[ "The Collection: Olivier Mosset" Retrieved 21 February 2014.]
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Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
[ "Centre Pompidou Virtuel - Olivier Mosset" Retrieved 21 February 2014]
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Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris (MAM Paris), Paris, France
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Museum of modern art, Ludwig Foundation, Vienna (Mumok,) in Vienna, Austria
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Migros Museum of Contemporary Art, Zürich, Switzerland
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Mercedes-Benz Art Collection, Mercedes-Benz Museum in Stuttgart, Germany
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Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, NY, U.S.A
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Cantonal Museum of Fine Arts, Lausanne, Switzerland
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Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon (MAC), Lyon, France
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MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
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Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland
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National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
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Musée des Beaux Arts, La Chaux-De-Fonds, Switzerland
Selected solo exhibitions
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1990 Olivier Mosset represented the Swiss pavilion at the 44th Venice Biennale
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1993 Le Consortium, Dijon, France
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1994 Olivier Mosset, Musée cantonal des beaux arts, Sion, Switzerland
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1996 MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
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1999 Centro d'Arte Contemporanea Ticino, Bellinzona, Switzerland
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2004 Carré d'Art, Musée d'Art Contemporain, Nîmes, France
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2010 Olivier Mosset, “A Step Backwards,” Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon (MAC), Lyon, France
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2011 “Born in Berne” Kunsthalle Bern, Bern, Switzerland
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2012 “Olivier Mosset ++ Leaving the Museum,” Kunshtalle Zürich, Züritch, Switzerland
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2012 Olivier Mosset at Indipendenza Studio, Rome, Italy
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2017 “Abstraction” by Olivier Mosset Jean-Paul Najar Foundation, Dubai, United Arab Emirates
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2018 “Untitled” by Olivier Mosset, MAMO Centre d'art de la cité Radieuse, Marseille, France
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2019 Haus Konstruktiv, Zürich, Switzerland
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2020 Olivier Mosset retrospective, 60 years of artwork, MAMCO, Geneva, Switzerland
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2021 “Olivier Mosset, a Contemplative & Mystifying Exhibition of the Artist’s Expansive Body of Work,” Tucson Museum of Art, Tucson, Arizona, U.S.A.
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2023 "Olivier Mosset, San Carlo PG" Cremona, Italy.
Selected group exhibitions
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1967 Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris "Salon de la Jeune Peinture"
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1992 MOMA PS1 “Slow Art: Painting in New York Now”
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2005 MOMA PS1 “The Painted World”
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2008 Whitney Biennial, at the Whitney Museum, New York, NY
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2008 “John Armleder and Olivier Mosset” at the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, U.S.A.
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2014 Manifesta 10, the European Biennial of Contemporary Art, at the Hermitage Museum in Saint Petersburg, Russia
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2021 Collection Pinault, “Au-delà de la couleur” (“Beyond Colour”) exhibition at the Couvent des Jacobins in Rennes, France
External links
