Claudévard
Born in 1930.
Died in 2004.
Painter and tapestry cartoon designer, Claudévard — the artist’s name of Jean-Claude Évard from painting and tapestry to monumental interventions integrated into buildings. In his pictorial compositions, he explores the colour-based fragmentation of space and seeks a balance between forms and colours within shifting dynamics; his experiments can be associated with Art Informel. This diversity extends to graphic art, sculpture and stage design, while his designs for textiles connect his work with the making of tapestries.
His career began with commercial training at a notary’s office, undertaken alongside painting classes at the Mouvement culturel romand with Maurice Robert. In 1949, his interest in advertising graphics led him to enrol in applied arts at the Technicum cantonal de Bienne. A trip to Italy in 1953 introduced him to the work of Italian fresco painters; the biographical source links this discovery to his taste for the monumental, particularly in his tapestry projects.
Painting, graphic design, sculpture and textile arts thus came together in a multifaceted practice, in which the pursuit of chromatic balance also found expression in large-scale works.
With his wife Jeanne-Odette, Claudévard created around twenty monumental tapestries. In 1967, together with around ten artists from French-speaking Switzerland, including Denise Voïta, Arthur Jobin and Françoise Ragno, he founded the Groupement des cartonniers-lissiers romands. Several commissions and monumental works were incorporated into architecture: the engraved concrete façade of the Musée des beaux-arts du Locle, a 150 m² bas-relief fresco at the Collège de Numa-Droz in La Chaux-de-Fonds, and a bush-hammered concrete fresco on the municipal building in Le Cerneux-Péquignot.
The stage was another field of activity: he designed the sets for Le Procès de la truie by Henri Debluë in 1961, Jeunesse in 1964 and Fuenteovejuna by Lope de Vega in 1966.
Between 1954 and 1982, he took part in ten biennials at the Musée des beaux-arts de La Chaux-de-Fonds. In 1977, he participated in Tapisseries suisses, artistes d’aujourd’hui, an international exhibition organised by the Groupement des cartonniers-lissiers romands and presented in several European countries. In 1987, a monumental installation by Claudévard was shown as part of an exhibition at the Abbatiale de Bellelay.
Several paintings are listed as viewable on the website of the Collection des arts visuels de Bienne.
