Claude Sandoz
Born in 1946.
A painter and printmaker whose work is often described as unclassifiable, Claude Sandoz develops a visual vocabulary in which the figurative and the ornamental enter into dialogue with visionary apparitions.
He studied at the art schools in Bern and Biel between 1964 and 1966. His early professional years were spent in Bern (1963–1976), punctuated by a stay at the Swiss Institute in Rome in 1969–1970 and a grant for Amsterdam in the Netherlands in 1972.
He later settled in the canton of Lucerne (first in Kriens, then in Lucerne in 1984) and, from 1997, divided his residence between there and a half-yearly stay in Soufrière on the island of Saint Lucia.
Married to Madeline Winkler since 1967, he is the father of two children. Alongside his artistic practice, he taught for an extended period at the École supérieure des beaux-arts de Genève, from 1983 to 2005.
According to the biographical notice, long journeys in Asia and the Orient serve as sources of inspiration, and in his work the everyday coexists with the exotic and the cosmic. Critics note a porosity between registers — the real and the visionary, the figurative and the decorative — which has at times led to his work being associated with Neo-Expressionism, without confining his visual language.
Sandoz works in painting and printmaking; an exhibition devoted to linocuts, 'Illusions morcelées', is documented at the Centre genevois de gravure contemporaine in 1986.
