The Geneva Museum of Art and History (MAH) hosts an intimate exhibition by Michel Grillet until May 25. The Geneva artist reveals his contemporary vision of the landscape, between pictorial tradition and reflection on our time.
The exhibition “Landscape Memory” extends over three small rooms of the Geneva Museum of Art and History where the work of Michel Grillet dialogues with works by large landscapers from the museum collection like Hodler, Hokusai and Vallotton.
A contemporary landscaper
For fifty years, Michel Grillet has made the landscape his pictorial creed. But far from confining himself to a traditional approach, the artist resolutely anchors his work in our time.
His latest works show transparent mountain reliefs standing out on a yellow sky, a weather vision as beautiful as they are worrying that expresses our climatic disturbances.
The cosmos at the end of the brush
The artist is also distinguished by his miniature landscapes painted on blue gouache pastilles. These tiny works echo the omnipresence of screens in our daily lives.
To make these gold coins, Michel Grillet uses special glasses and works with extreme concentration. “I am completely absorbed into the cosmos,” he said in Vertigo on March 27, 2025.
The artist compares his approach to that of a scientist. He likes to observe the subtle modifications of the landscape over his daily walks. “I work regularly outside, a bit like a monk, in a meditative silence. I focus on these layers, this light, these extremely subtle elements,” he explains.
A spiritual quest through the landscape
Michel Grillet’s work is imbued with an almost sacred dimension. From an early age, the artist wondered about existential questions in the vastness of the starry sky. “What is the world? What is infinity? What is life?” Wondered already at 7 or 8 years old. These questions led him to take an interest in Eastern philosophy, in particular in Zen Buddhism. An influence that is felt in his paintings, strongly inspired by Japanese art.
Radio subject: Florence Grivel
Adaptation Web: Sébastien Foggiato
Michel Grillet, “Landscape memory. The tradition of the landscape in art”, Museum of Art and History, Geneva, from February 8 to May 25, 2025.
