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JEAN-CLAUDE BOSSEL
PAINTINGS NO. 01 TO 12
PAINTING AND MUSIC

PERIOD 2011–2013
PAINTING AND MUSICAL COMPOSITION

IN PARTNERSHIP
WITH FGB GALLERY
PRÉVERENGES (SWITZERLAND)

TECHNICAL NOTE
PRELIMINARY REMARK AND NOTICE
BEFORE VIEWING THE PAINTINGS

The images below are presented for informational and documentary purposes.

Nothing can replace the interaction between the viewer’s eye and the artwork placed before it, with or without appropriate lighting, at different distances, whether viewed up close or from afar.

The exact colour of the painting and the impression of material or thickness cannot therefore be guaranteed through these images.

Some images appear relatively faithful to the original, while others are less so. These observations must nevertheless be qualified, as depending on external light conditions or the quality of lighting, the paintings may vary in tone.

TWELVE PAINTINGS
RELATED TO FOUR
MUSICAL WORKS

The paintings presented in this section, all created between 2011 and 2013, are grouped into four sets of three paintings corresponding to four musical scores composed by Jean-Claude Bossel between 2001 and 2005:

• Three paintings from the CANTATE FRANCISCAINE series

• Three paintings from the CHANTS DE L’AU-DELÀ series

• Three paintings from the INVITATION AU VOYAGE series

• Three paintings from the JUGEMENT DE PÂRIS series

THREE PAINTINGS
FROM THE
CANTATE FRANCISCAINE SERIES

The three paintings presented here are part of the CANTATE FRANCISCAINE series. This series, painted in 2011, is directly linked to a musical work entitled PETITE CANTATE FRANCISCAINE for soloists, choir, instrumental ensemble and organ, composed by Jean-Claude Bossel at the request of the Rotary Club of Lausanne on the occasion of its 75th anniversary. This score was premiered in 2001 at Saint-François Church in Lausanne and led to the production of a commemorative CD offered to the guests of the commissioning body.

For this same event, the Rotary Club also commissioned the master glassmaker and painter Pierre Chevalley to create two contemporary stained-glass windows for the west façade of the church. Jean-Claude Bossel then drew inspiration from the designs of these stained-glass windows to develop the generic musical motif of his cantata.

Ten years later, in memory of Pierre Chevalley, who had passed away in the meantime, he reworked in pictorial form fragments of motifs drawn both from this musical composition and from the stained-glass works of the master glassmaker. These paintings thus constitute a visual transposition of material of both musical and visual origin, in a close dialogue between painting, memory and composition.

THREE PAINTINGS
FROM THE
CHANTS DE L’AU-DELÀ SERIES

The three paintings presented here are part of a series related to the musical work CHANTS DE L’AU-DELÀ for soloists, choir, symphonic orchestra and organ, composed by Jean-Claude Bossel and premiered in 2001 at Lausanne Cathedral.

The realisation of this work benefited from institutional funding from the Department of Education and Youth of the Canton of Vaud, as well as support from several cultural foundations. After its premiere in Lausanne, the work was also presented in spring 2001 during a concert held in Spain.

The preparation of the premiere concerts of CHANTS DE L’AU-DELÀ was the subject of a documentary film entitled PASSAGES, directed by Bernard Novet and released in cinemas in French-speaking Switzerland in spring 2003.

As an extension of this artistic experience, Jean-Claude Bossel wrote in 2004 an academic thesis devoted to the sources of influence of this composition, within the framework of an interdisciplinary postgraduate diploma jointly organised by the Universities of Lausanne and Geneva. This work is entitled Dreams, Altered States of Consciousness and Artistic Creativity.

The paintings, created a few years later, extend this approach by transposing into a visual form certain motifs derived from the musical score.

THREE PAINTINGS
FROM THE
INVITATION AU VOYAGE SERIES

The three paintings presented here are part of a series related to the musical work INVITATION AU VOYAGE for soprano and harp, composed by Jean-Claude Bossel in 2003–2004 and premiered in spring 2004 as part of the Fêtes de la musique in Morges.

This score forms part of an artistic reflection on the theme of travel as it appears in the poetry of Charles Baudelaire, and more particularly in the collection Les Fleurs du mal.

These paintings, created a few years later, extend this approach by transposing into a visual form certain poetic and musical motifs linked to this Baudelairean imaginary of travel. Notably, barely visible within the pictorial material, one can observe fragments of poems by Baudelaire, in particular from the poem Le Voyage.

Within the fictional framework developed around the CODE BACH project, these paintings and this music may also be attributed to the fictional character Franz Gurtner, who is said to have created these works in the early 1930s, before inventing CODE BACH at the end of that same decade.

THREE PAINTINGS
FROM THE
JUGEMENT DE PÂRIS SERIES

The three paintings presented here are part of a series related to the musical work JUGEMENT DE PÂRIS for choir, soloists, narrator and symphonic orchestra, composed by Jean-Claude Bossel in 2004–2005. This score, commissioned by the State of Vaud, was premiered in spring 2005 at Lausanne Cathedral.

The creation of this work also gave rise to an exhibition at the Musée Arlaud in Lausanne, dedicated to the relationships between musical creation and the fictional framework developed around this composition, in particular through the figure of Franz Gurtner, the supposed author of this work, which he is said to have composed under tragic conditions at the end of 1941 and the very beginning of 1942 in Germany.

This project benefited from financial support from several Swiss institutions and foundations, notably the SUISA Foundation for Music, the Leenaards Foundation, the Sandoz Family Foundation and the Constantin Regamey Foundation.

As with other paintings produced during the period 2011–2013, these works are part of an artistic reflection nourished by poetic and symbolic references. The paintings in this series therefore include, as in the INVITATION AU VOYAGE series, written traces of fragments of poems by Charles Baudelaire, in particular from the poem Le Voyage à Cythère, taken from the collection Les Fleurs du mal.

BACK TO THE PAGE
SELECTION OF
60 PAINTINGS

Click on the button to return to the page presenting the five groups of the selection of sixty paintings created between 2011 and 2026.

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