Olivier Mosset

Olivier Mosset (b. 1944, Switzerland) is best known for his radical series of monochrome paintings. While living in Paris in the 1960s, he was a member of the BMPT with Daniel Buren, Michel Parmentier and Niele Toroni. BMPT questioned notions of authorship and originality to demonstrate the importance of the art object itself, implying that the artists collaborated more often than not. Later, Mosset became a founding member of the New York Radical Painting group, “radical” referring both to a social stance and a return to the radical root of painting. Mosset is also a skilled sculptor. His ongoing project Toblerones consists of large geometric shapes in cardboard, ice and concrete to reference the Swiss anti-tank barrages from World War II. In 2012, the artist created stage designs for the ballet Sous Apparence at the Paris Opéra Ballet.

Mosset moved to New York City in 1978 and studied studio art at Columbia University. His

work has been featured in several solo museum exhibitions at the Musée de Beaux-Arts La Chaux-de-Fonds (Switzerland), Centre d’Art Contemporain (France), Palais de Tokyo (Paris) and Tucson Museum of Art (Arizona). Several institutions have acquired Mosset compositions, including the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris). The artist is represented by Gagosian Gallery. He currently lives in both New York City and Tucson, Arizona.

Related Works

• Ellsworth Kelly, a pioneer of minimalism, was known for stripping down artwork to its most basic elements of color and form. View his work.

• In our sister gallery, form & concept, jeweler Joanne Grimonprez specializes in creating minimalist geometric adornment out of black rope and copper bands. View her work.