| ISBN : | 978-3-03764-635-9 |
|---|---|
| Publication : | February 2026 |
Stemming from his major solo exhibition held at Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne in 2023, this comprehensive monograph on Swiss painter Francis Baudevin (b. 1964, lives in Lausanne) offers a complete overview of his 35 years of work. It particularly focuses on how his practice has evolved in the last decade and his deep connection to music, Baudevin being an obsessive collector of records and an experimental and underground music enthusiast.
Since the end of the 1980s, Baudevin has been developing an abstract painting practice which is rigorous, coherent, and playful. Always following the same method, he appropriates graphic compositions from our common visual domain (logos, packaging, pharmaceuticals, record covers, etc.) and removes all text references—hence, all meaning—to keep only the form itself and play with scale. All that remain are geometric shapes and flat areas of color. Though one may recognize the initial reference—often indicated by the works’ titles—these variations end up revealing unexpected similarities to iconic abstract works and how the history of commercial design has been in parts influenced by modern art, thus underlining the extensive circulation of motifs and forms between the artistic and the advertising worlds. In the process of deconstructing a logo, one can be surprised to find parallels with some of the most radical artistic approaches—from Malevich to Mondrian or Barnett Newman.
With a certain sense of irony, but never cynical, Baudevin’s work offers a commentary on the migration of signs, the recycling of the avant-garde, and the visual organization of today’s consumer society. He has often been compared to a DJ in the way he manipulates existing signs and uses samples to make them resonate in a specific way. From this perspective, his paintings appear to be moving away from radical abstraction, towards an embodied pop-like quality.
Lavishly illustrated, designed by the artist with Zurich-based graphic designer Nicolas Eigenheer and introduced by curator Paul Bernard, this monograph features an essay on the influence and legacy of Concrete Art in Baudevin’s work by French art historian Marjolaine Lévy, a case study by Swiss curator and historian Marlene Bürgi about the relationship between the smiley emoji and the wall paintings produced by the artist for his 2023 Biel exhibition, as well as an extensive conversation with London-based art critic and curator Lydia Yee.
Published with Kunsthaus Biel Centre d’art Bienne.
