Book and exhibition –The canton of Vaud revives the painter Etienne Delessert
died in 2024, the artist wanted to give everything to the state, which made the point. Two pounds and a hanging rabocoche things.
Posted today at 9:44 am
Yok-Yok is back. The little character had had a crazy success around 1980.
Etienne Delessert succession. Photo provided by the State of Vaud.
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When Etienne Delessert died on April 22, 2024 in Lakeville in Connecticut, I don’t even know if I made an article for you. It must be said that man was not treated in the country of Vaud as a local hero, as Jacques Chessex had been during his death suffered in 2009. The United States, it was far when we have lived there since 1985. Very linked to the 1970s and 1980s, the success of the work seemed to have been blurred. Rather forgetting than disdain. This is evidenced by the polished refusal of a large part of the artist’s legacy by his original canton. I will come back to it.
A distance
A generation, if not two, will have lived without the gouaches of Etienne Delessert. There were no more children to rave in front of the colorful images of Yok-Yok, his most famous character. It is not that the illustrator remained inactive. On the contrary. From 2007 to 2022, our man will have illuminated more than twenty pounds, for many intended for youth. But his exhibitions in Switzerland will only take place in places deemed minor. I have also not seen “the drawn notebooks” come to the aid of a gently old -fashioned creator. No album in my memory. I checked not without difficulty. The publishing house site remains very slow. Well no! No Etienne Delessert, tried formerly as essential.
Right now at the space Space
But who is the man by the way? A small book in brush today the portrait, while the ARLAUD space (peripheral, even it does not find at the Riponne) presents the work until June 29. The book is due to Jacques Poget, who tries to keep the flame high. Etienne was born in 1941 into an old Vaudois family linked to the Protestant bank. Pasteur father. An early vocation of designer made it in 1963 in Paris. first successes thanks to new newspapers. Then it was a first departure in New York, where he seemed to stay in place for Europeans. Return to Lausanne in 1973, where the Museum of Decorative Arts shows with which it will remain linked. The Mudac, which succeeded him, will reject him later. Then it is the adventure, experienced as a painful soap opera, of “supersaxo” this animated film of feature film will never see completely the day. Deletert ruined will throw in the towel in 1984 before crossing the Atlantic for new successes which will partly relieve its bitterness.
The “Illuminator”
Poget gives man a vision not flattering, but friendly. He knew Delessert well, which I practiced a little for a few years. He praises his imagination, his work force and his obstinacy. The gentleman was unfortunately not always easy. Nor very punctual. I remember his phenomenal delays at the appointments. It is now a question of putting it back in the saddle, even if the designer does not need a rehabilitation. Poget thus participates in the other book, much heavier and thicker, which appears in parallel on the painter. I mean “Etienne Delessert Illuminator”, which comes out at Infolio with other texts due to Françoise Jaunin or at the deceased Jean-Claude Carrière. Remember that there is the exhibition of the Space Arlaud!
Legs d’artistes
And what do we see there? The artist’s legacy in the state of Vaud. Things have not been well moved down. Sick, Delessert wanted to leave 800 pieces at the Jenisch museum. The institution made him understand that it was too much, when we stay in reasonable quantities. Photo inheritances can rise to hundreds of thousands of negatives (1). Vaud therefore took 100 watercolors and paintings. The others went to American institutions, which the artist has of course badly taken. As Jacques Poget says, he loved his canton of origin more than the latter appreciated him. Love remains unequal definition. There was in return the exhibition, which should have opened in January 2025. Some parts are currently in Jenisch, but not all. The latter advocated a distribution between institutions relating to crumbling. Other creations have therefore finished at the Cantonal Museum of fine Arts, at the University Cantonal Library and in the Cantonal Archives. We stay far from the planned reference fund. But as I told you, Delessert was not an easy man. I will tell you later my visit to the Arlaud space.
Etienne Delessert Child in 1944. An image discovered in the little book.
Dr, photo taken from “Étienne Delessert, Vaudois painter”.
(1) The Geneva Library thus received from Jean Revillard a fund of two million digital files after its death in 2019.
Practical
“Etienne Delessert, Vaudois painter” by Jacques Poget, Presto collection, by Editions Infolio, 62 pages.
Born in 1948, Etienne Dumont In Geneva, studies that have been not very useful. Latin, Greek, law. A failed lawyer, he branched off towards journalism. Most often in cultural sections, he worked from March 1974 to May 2013 at the “Tribune de Genève”, starting by talking about cinema. Then came the fine arts and books. Other than that, as you can see, nothing to report.More info
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