WORKS

PIERRE TERBOIS

Born in 1932 in Geneva, Switzerland, Pierre Terbois was a very prominent artist of contemporary Geneva painting. Since childhood, the artist had a great love for art, in fact, he painted his first work at the age of fourteen. He will then take evening classes to improve his technique.

At the age of twenty, he left his native Switzerland to study screen printing in New York, where he discovered other painting techniques such as strong water and lithography. He will make his first exhibition in New York and chain them once he returns to Switzerland. From 1961 to 1997, he directed a screen printing workshop in Carouge, Switzerland, and also for art publishers. He will be entrusted with some works by Vasarely, Sonia Delaunay or Antonio Saura.

Passionate about the railway sector from an early age, he photographed steam locomotives in his youth, which inspired him greatly in his future work. In 1960, Terbois freed his works from all geometric principles to give way to the impulses, feelings and reveries expressed by this particular abstraction linking painting and atmospheric condensation.

It is possible to notice in his works a composition often vaporous, fuzzy, even almost dreamlike that will make the charm of the universe of the painter.

He thus joins the current of lyrical abstraction, in other words, the action painting of the Americans.

The tones of Terbois’s works are intense, the light is omnipresent and piercing, without breaking the harmonious balance of these poetic compositions. Terbois treats with great ease the pastes and especially the transparent glazes, the emphasis is placed on the relations of the colors rather than the colors themselves; sensitivity, refinement are the qualities of an intuitive language which is expressed by a physical participation, by gesture; the result is that Terbois finds himself at ease in large formats where his sensuality is «lived». 

During his career, Terbois exhibited his works in numerous galleries and museums. Many galleries in Geneva have hosted the work of the artist, including the Edwin Engelberts gallery, or even the prints cabinet. The Palais de l'Athénée, the Rath Museum, the Musée de Carouge and the Centre d'Art Visuel in Geneva also showed the works of Terbois. He will also exhibit in Zurich and Lausanne.

Pierre Terbois died in 2006 after rich years of artistic experimentation. His last exhibition took place in 2006 at the Musée de Carouge shortly before his death. Since then, no retrospective has been presented to the public. His works of great quality are timeless and unique in their genre, so they always have their place in the actuality of the world of abstract painting.