Meeting with Swiss artist John M Armleder

John M. Armleder, an artist who overturns the codes of Art

It’s a busy winter for the legendary John M. Armleder who is exhibiting at Geneva and has a new book out with Three Star Books. The prolific artist has continued to produce artwork diverse and abundant which constantly calls into question the notion of aesthetic value.

With him, everything is possible, and he systematically forces us to reevaluate our criteria of judgment linked to notions of taste, categories, art history, etc. His series Furniture Sculpture – in which he combines abstract paintings with pieces of designfurniture… – is undoubtedly one of the most relevant proposals for questioning the hierarchy between the various aesthetic fields, but also the historical links and oppositions between art and the decorative, without forgetting the questions linked to scenography .

Likewise, wallpaper, logos, disco balls, sequins and bodywork lacquers collide in his series of Puddles Paintingsmade on canvases placed on the ground, or Pour Paintingsvertical drips produced at random, which he presents at the Almine Rech gallery in Monaco. We met this artist who does not feel responsible for what he does and considers himself just as a passer, a link between art and the spectator.

Meeting with the artist John M. Armleder, exhibited throughout Geneva

Number : Can you quickly tell us about your background, where you come from, what you studied and to what extent did the context in which you grew up influence you?

John M. Armelder : I don’t know if we can really talk like that. I was born in Geneva where my family owned a hotel [le mythique palace Le Richemond, désormais fermé]. My mother was American, but she always lived in Europe and had many contacts with the art world and with collectors like Peggy Guggenheim. She took me to museums from a very young age.

Do you remember your first encounter with art? How did your vocation begin?

I always talk about my first epiphany. I was 3 years old, and we went to visit Florence. This great emotion that I felt happened in an old convent [le couvent de San Marco]where there were small drawings on the walls made by the monks, and where there was also a painting of Fra Angelico representing the archangel Gabriel who comes to announce the arrival of Christ. I was only 3 years old, but I remember perfectly that the archangel had a polychrome wing which totally fascinated me. My mother found me in front of the painting and told me that I had tears in my eyes. I can also cite a second important moment. We are then in the United States, still with my mother, in 1956. At that time, I was 8 years old. We visit the MoMA and she finds me in front of the White square on a white background of Malevich, and I said to him: “Ah well, you see, that’s modern art. This is what I want to do later.“We went from total polychrome to modernism, to monochrome.

“I was born in 1948, just after the war, so I’m sort of a left-wing hippie.”

John M. Armleder

Where did you study?

I was always a very bad student and I didn’t get my baccalaureate. I went to theGeneva School of Fine Artswhich, at the time, was very academic. Right next door was the Museum of Art and History, and we were told that we could go and copy master paintings there, like at the Louvre. I told myself that this was no longer done, and yet that is what I did. I copied Konrad Witz and Ferdinand Hodler. That’s all I did in terms of studies.

What was the context at the time?

I was born in 1948, just after the war, so I’m sort of a left-wing hippie. When I came out of theSchool of Fine ArtsI refused to do my military service, and I spent seven months in an old prison. I learned more about human behavior there than anywhere else probably.

You use a wide range of mediums in the production of your works: painting, video, sculpture, installation, performance, etc. How do you navigate between them? Is one practice more important to you than another?

No not at all. I think there is a total equivalence between all ways of producing a work. When I was very young, I did a lot of work on paper, drawings, but at a certain point I began to diversify my means of expression, and then I persisted in this way of working. There are artists who move from one period to another and never go back, like Picasso, and others who start one thing and continue it all their lives, like Picabia. I am in that tradition.

How important is the workshop to you? Do you have a daily practice?

For several years, I have had a workshop that I share with the artist Mai-Thu Perretbut for a long time I didn’t have any. In addition to producing works there, I installed my archives and my library there, as well as a number of old works that I store there.

A prolific career since the 1960s

This fall you are presenting three exhibitions in Geneva, including one shared by two galleries with which you are not used to working, and a third at the Barbier-Mueller museum. What can you tell us about it?

I am proposing a retrospective exhibition of drawings by Olivier Varenne, his father was an important gallery owner. When I arrived at this workshop, we took inventory of my stocks and we found a lot of works on paper from different periods. This collection contains works from the 1960s to today, although I rarely make them anymore. At the house of Balthazar Lovaythis is a project that dates back to the 70s. At that time, when I walked in the street, I picked up playing cards that had been lost. I collected these cards and made collages of them. And there are also boxes that look like small display cases that are reminiscent of works of art. Joseph Cornell or from George Brecht.

Au Barbier-Mueller Museumthis time it is a collaboration. The curator of this institution created a dialogue between works from her collection and my work, seeking in particular to highlight formal relationships with my glass pieces, most of which were made in Murano about fifteen years ago. All theexposition is based on this idea of ​​transparency, which is also a bit Duchampian. Duchamp’s major work, The Big Glasswas broken. The artist decided that the brokenness was part of the work and never attempted to repair it. This proposition always seemed nice to me… Finally, at Almine RechI show drips. There is a performative side to making these works, as I throw the paint onto the canvas. Generally, I decide on a format, buy a certain number of colors and exhaust the stock on the canvas with colors that are not necessarily mixable. This causes absolutely uncontrollable chemical reactions, and that’s what interests me. In the end, I don’t choose anything, it’s the canvas that chooses me and that has always been my position.

“A work is never finished, because it is taken over by the viewer, and it then becomes something else.”

John M. Armleder

What is your interest in layout issues?

Often I have the feeling that the arrangement is sufficient in itself. In a way, the setting up of the work is the work, and there is no need for anything else. During my exhibition at Fernand-Léger museum in Biot, in 2014, I presented some paintings that I had produced on site, which took up details from certain paintings by Léger, from his abstract period. But between these canvases there were also ghosts of canvases, because on the walls, which had not been cleaned, there were empty squares which revealed that other works had previously been shown here, like prints of their past presence. Thus, these prints became works, but this did not last because the walls were repainted soon after.

How do you know when a work is finished?

A work is never finished, because it is taken over by the viewer, and it then becomes something else. And in the end, it may also have never started. This idea of ​​framing the work, which suggests that it is finished in relation to its history, is something that doesn’t really interest me. In some cases, we find drawingsor paintingswhich we will recompose into sets which are not the original ones. And for the people who look at them, the context will change and they might use them differently. These transitions are things that happen all the time, and so it would be completely futile to try to define the purpose of a work according to theoretical requirements. I always think that what I did, if I hadn’t did anyone else would have done it. In a way, everything has already been done and will also be done again later.

Is there anything you would like to convey? In what story would you like to place your work?

No, I never thought about that, and I believe that it happens on its own, and that it evolves over time. I don’t believe at all in the “historical” idea of ​​a movement that an artist is supposed to represent. Anyway, I’m an artist like any other, an average artist who makes average works, and people can do with them what they want. I believe that something supposedly important can become, over time, something insignificant, and vice versa.

Exhibition “Transparent by John M. Armleder”, until January 5, 2025, at the Barbier-Mueller museum, Geneva, www.barbier-mueller.ch.

Exhibition “Soubresauts 1 by John M. Armleder”, until 5 January 2025, at the Lovay Fine Arts Gallery, Geneva, www.lovay.ch.

Exhibition “Soubresauts 2 by John M. Armleder”, until 23 March 2025, at the Olivier Varenne gallery, Geneva, www.varenne.art.