Fitnes at Home Print

Bernd Alder is a Swiss artist, French expression, who has tried to find throughout his long and successful career the way to transport Mediterranean light to his canvases. For this he has followed the example of French impressionist artists settling for many years on the French Riviera (Montpellier). He fell in love with the same Provence light that seduced Matisse, Picasso, Léger, where great history of museums have been honoring all of them: Picasso (Antibes - Vallauris), Matisse and Chagall (Niça), Leger (Biot). Only Ceret, however, - with the Museum of Modern Art, already in French Catalonia - offers us a global discourse linked to the emergence of the Avant-garde in France, given the fact that several waves of artists resided and there are even lived there for many years. Alder has wanted to mix his artistic experience in this territory with the inspiration of the artists he adores. His way of approaching the landscape seduces us by its historical approach that goes beyond the artists of the twentieth century. From Cézanne and his last period, where he repeated incessantly landscapes of his beloved city Aix-en-Provence, to the Saint Victoire mountain to the surrounding forests. Alder's brushstroke is more similar to the compositional brushstroke of these works than to the avant-garde interpretations that descendants of Cézanne explored. He has recently changed this territories for Barcelona, a maritime city that approaches to an experience of the sea in a unbeatable way. He uses the plein air technique without blushing, transferring - as an artistic performance - all the elements of the trade, from the paintbrushes to the painting and colored tubes, in his robust Swiss shepherd physicist. We believe that the search for light in his new adoptive city will bring him new topics of analysis and interpretation. Lately female portraits have been increasing his interest, new trends that will surely satisfy his large group of international collectors. JOAN ABELLÓ Art critic and historian, independent curator of exhibitions.