Yves Leterrier

I was born in Nancy, France in 1964 and lived in the United States. I came to Lausanne, Switzerland in the 90s where I live and work as a researcher in materials science, spending increasing time in Japan since 2022.

I have always been drawing and I create oil paintings in the footsteps of my maternal grandfather. I have the privilege to work since many years in Elisabeth Llach's workshop "I prefer what touches me to what surprises me". These words are from the XVIII century French harpsichorist and composer François Couperin, which I reuse here as they beautifully apply to the work of painting, like the gradual change of colors over the seasons:

Painted palisade
The green trees are all pink
This is my season
(Paul Eluard, eleven hai-kais, 1920)

My work is a tribute to the long-standing friendship and artistic complicity between France and Japan. I reinterpret works from the 16th to the 20th centuries, making preparatory collages combining ‘ukiyo’ landscapes and characters from both cultures and from all eras. The titles of the paintings are inspired by readings of French surrealist poems and translated into Japanese ... or vice versa.

Since 2010 I started to create enigmatic collages, whose titles are taken from surrealist p...

• Atelier of Elisabeth Llach since 2016
• MS and PhD in Materials Sciences

Solo exhibitions
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– 'En été, la nuit – 夏は夜', ARTIFACT, New-York, August 3-22, 2022, opening Aug 3 from 6pm
– Mini exhibition of selected works at Espace ELEVEN, Lausanne, Dec 2021-Jan 2022
– Mini exhibition of selected works at OSIO pâtisseries japonaises, Prilly-Lausanne, November 1-30, 2021
– 'Beautés émouvantes des mondes flottants – 心揺さぶる浮世の美, Espace Démart, Lausanne, September 7-12, 2021. Opening September 9 within 'La Ligne Bleue' event.
– 1624色', Hôtel-restaurant le Raisin, Lausanne, Switzerland, March 9-June 14, 2020. Opening March 12 at 6 pm. The exhibition was closed for 2 months due to COVID-19: a surrealist act!
– 'Surréel Japon – 夢のような日本', boutique Sérénité, Lausanne, Switzerland, June 1-July 6, 2019
– 'L'âge des cœurs ouverts', EPFL, Switzerland, Feb. 23-Apr. 28, 2017
– 'Il faut être deux pour être trois', Prilly, Switzerland, Sept. 8-13, 2015
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Group exhibitions
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– Lausanne Art Fair, Gallery Art&Emotion, Sept. 30-Oct. 3, 2021
– Art Blend 2020, Swiss Art Space, Lausanne, Aug. 21 (opening)-Sept. 11, 2020
– CREApoly, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, December 5-20, 2017
– 'En automne 2015', Swiss Art Space, Lausanne, Switzerland, Nov. 5-21, 2015
– CREApoly, EPFL, Lausanne, Switzerland, March 12-26, 2015
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Featured
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