André Evrard
Born in 1936.
Died in 2021.
André Evrard (1 April 1936, La Chaux-de-Fonds – 29 April 2021) is described as a Swiss artist, painter, draughtsman, printmaker and watercolourist. Initially trained and active as a photolithographer—having served an apprenticeship and practised the profession for around ten years—he spent time in Paris in 1957 before settling in Vevey in 1959, the year in which he married Maryse.
Printmaking occupies a central place in his practice: he worked primarily in etching, moderated through the use of aquatint or soft-ground, as well as with scraper and burnisher. Alongside his autonomous prints, he collaborated on bibliophile editions, notably Six aquatintes originales (éd. François Lafranca, 1969) and engraved illustrations for Delta du doute (Vera Feyder, 1971).
His work also includes monumental commissions for public sites: a tapestry diptych made for the Aula of the University of Neuchâtel (weaving: Denise Emery) and, in 1983, two triptychs entitled Les 3 âges de la vie for the Les Charmettes nursing home in Neuchâtel.
His professional career was marked by several distinctions: the Federal Fine Arts Scholarship (1963), the printmaking prize (1966) and the painting prize (1972) of the Musée des Beaux-Arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds, as well as the Grand Prix Arts et Lettres of the Musée Jenisch, Vevey (1974). His works are held in public collections in Switzerland and abroad—among those mentioned are the Musée national d'art moderne (Paris) and the Victoria & Albert Museum (London)—as well as in cantonal institutions and public sites (the Musée d'Art et d'Histoire de Neuchâtel, the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Locle, the town hall and conservatory of La Chaux-de-Fonds, among others). He exhibited regularly, notably with Galerie Ditesheim in Neuchâtel (several dates are recorded) and in solo exhibitions at the Musée des Beaux-Arts du Locle (2005; 2016–2017).
A monograph is devoted to him (Evrard, Éditions Infolio, 2015), and in 1999 a 60-minute filmed portrait was dedicated to him in the series Les films Obsidiane (directed by Alain Nicolet).
