Far from being a Swiss exclusive, paper cutting is practiced in China and Japan as well as in Mexico and Poland. But the tradition that developed between the Pre-Alps and the Alps remains particularly lively. So much so that a Swiss Paper Cutting Centre, backed by the Pays-d’Enhaut Museum, has been opened in Château-from Oex. To the point that galleries such as the Galerie Hüsy in Gstaad exhibit recent and “historical” works. Despite their fragility, many of the 18th century cuttingse and XIXe centuries have resisted the ravages of time.
If today true professionals hold high the art of paper cutting, in the past many mountain farmers occupied their winter evenings by acrobatically handling scalpels and scissors. It is not surprising that the poyas, climbed to the mountain pastures or descended from the mountain pastures, could constitute choice subjects. But the imagination of the paper cutters has never ceased to embrace other domains: village festivals, life in the chalet, landscapes, bouquets of flowers, animals… To black and white has been added color, to the strict symmetry of the more audacious compositions, to the figurative abstraction. Renewing tradition, going beyond proven frameworks, some paper cutters have become authentic visual artists.
In this beautifully illustrated book, both an encyclopedia and a guide, Monique Buri focuses on the major cutters whose works have hung on collectors’ shelves for decades. Whether they are the sure values of the 20th centurye century such as Christian Schwizgebel (1914-1993) and David Regez (1916-1984); precursors such as Hauswirth (1809-1871) and Saugy (1871-1953); or very contemporaries such as Anne Rosat, Doris Henchoz, Henriette Hartmann or Bruno Weber.
Monique Buri, “Paper cut-outs”, Favre ed., 168 p., CHF 48.-
