Louis Soutter

The Swiss-born artist Louis Soutter studied music before he turned to painting and drawing. His promising US career came to an abrupt end when he returned to Switzerland a sick man in 1904. He continued playing in the symphony orchestra in Lausanne for a while and went on to lead a life as a dandy and vagabond until his family had him committed to a senior citizen's home at the age of fifty, where he spent the rest of his life. In the seclusion of this exile in his own country, Louis Soutter created an overwhelmingly rich oeuvre of painting and drawing, breaking radically with all conventions. After smaller formats depicting literary themes, in the years after 1930 Soutter formulated his oppressive fears in drawings of figures and plants. The mysterious, archaic world of figures, which has lost nothing of its stirring and alarming impact, appeared in 1937 when he began painting directly with his fingers. During his lifetime, there were few people who realized the quality and meaning of his hallucinatory compositions laden with symbols; among the few who did was his cousin Le Corbusier, who was the first to publish a text about Soutter in 1936. In this book, intended as a retrospective, rich illustrations help to present the extensive oeuvre of this exceptional artist. (German edition available 3- 7757-1227-5) Exhibition Schedule: Kunstmuseum Basel September 28, 2002 - January 5, 2003 + Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne February 2 - May 4, 2003