Le Boucher Corpaato
Born in Fribourg (Switzerland) in 1950.
Swiss · Swiss contemporary art · expressive figurative painting, assemblage and object-based art.
Under the name Le Boucher Corpaato, Jean-Pierre Corpataux has developed a body of work inseparable from Fribourg’s artisanal and culinary culture. A master butcher, cook and self-taught artist, he transforms his professional experience into a personal pictorial vocabulary, in which meat, livestock, the rural world and still life become fields of colour, humour and formal invention.
His first exhibition, En hommage à la viande, was held in 1984 in the former family butcher’s shop. The following year, he exhibited at Galerie Krebs in Bern alongside Jean Tinguely and Alfred Hofkunst. His career continued through exhibitions, interventions in public space and scenographic projects: he presented an important group of canvases at the Marché international de Rungis, exhibited at the restaurant L’Entrecôte and in the Pavilion of the Future at the Seville World’s Fair, and notably created the Chuchichäschtli-Tram in Zurich.
Corpaato’s painting is distinguished by direct drawing, bold colours and a composition often constructed through the juxtaposition of signs, objects and scenes. Canvases, cardboard, painted supports, sculptures and assemblages bring the vocabulary of the butcher’s shop into dialogue with animals, poyas, figures, landscapes and images of everyday life. Cattle heads, suspended quarters of meat, sausages and life-size painted cows are among his most recognisable motifs.
The works by Le Boucher Corpaato presented by Swiss Art Gallery extend this artistic journey and take their place naturally within this corpus.
