PARIS.- From October 17 to November 29, 2014, the gallery presents an exhibition entitled Moser, l’insoumis, sur les traces du piéton du petit matin. This exhibition is organised on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of Wilfrid Moser’s birth and benefits from the support of the Moser Foundation in Zurich. As a European avant-garde artist, Wilfrid Moser (1914-1997) has influenced the evolution of European painting from the 1930s. His work is atmost expressionistic in style and inspired by the diverse existential concerns of the mid-war period. This double exhibition presents a retrospective panorama of his work with a selection of paintings from 1946 to 1992 as well as a few sculptures that is being shown in their St Germain space (Paris 6). The gallery also shows a selection of works on paper from the same period in their Marais location (Paris 3). Both solo shows pay tribute to the originality of Moser’s artistic career in the post-war period.

Born in Zürich on June 10, 1914, Wilfrid Moser is strongly influenced by the paintings from his childhood, especially several works by Utrillo and Rouault that his father bought in 1910. During a journey in Italy, he discovered the spectacular simplicity of Tuscan landscapes. He is also impressed by the light in the Sienna primitives’ paintings. A few years later, he graduated from college and gave up practicing violin. He travelled then to Spain and Morocco where he met Nicolas de Staël and started to work on colour.

Moser arrived in Paris in 1945 at a time when the city was the artistic centre of Europe. His works were exhibited at the gallery Jeanne Bucher from 1952, a few months before its participation in the first Salon d’Octobre in Paris. His works, that could be qualified as expressionistic and which sway between realism and abstraction, are atmost influenced by the intensity of the impressions felt during his Parisian life : the succession of streets, the open houses, the butcher’s shops, the underground and bridges are recurrent patterns. His work is also diversified : wether in his Parisian paintings including collages, in the synthetic sculptures with red and white stripes and also, in the 1970s, in his mountains landscapes painted in grey tones. After Hodler and Kirchner, Moser initiated a new chapter in Swiss mountain painting history. Not to forget the impenetrable grid of branches in his undergrowth paintings or the impressive late pastels marked by the essential stream of his expressiveness. The paintings by Moser have always embodied the energy of the gesture and his imagination has remained vibrant and vivid. They have been presented in 14 monographic exhibitions at the gallery. The artist’s work has also been shown in an important retrospective in 2009 at the Kunstmuseum in Bern, Switzerland.

Wilfrid Moser’s works have integrated important public collections such as : Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble Réunion des Musées Nationaux, Paris Schweizerische Eidengenossenschaft Kunsthaus Aarau Kunstmuseum de Berne Kunstmuseum de Luzern Kunstmuseum d’Olten Kunsthaus de Zurich Graphische Sammlung ETH de Zurich Bünder Kunstmuseum de Chur Kunsthaus de Zug Kunstmuseum de Winterthur Kunstmuseum de St. Gallen Kunstmuseum de Thun Bellinzona, Valla dei Cedri Pinacoteca Casa Rusca de Locarno.