Francis Baudevin, born in Bulle in 1964, has been developing, since the end of the 1980s a body of abstract work that is known to be rigorous, coherent and playful. Always following the same method, the artist takes abstract graphic compositions from our visual domain (logos, packaging, record covers etc.), and then removes all text references – hence, all meaning –, to keep only the form itself. All that remain are geometric shapes and flat areas of colour. Though one may recognise the initial reference – often indicated by the painter’s title –, these variations end up revealing unexpected similarities to iconic abstract works of art.

In the process of deconstructing a logo, one can be surprised to find parallels with some of the most radical approaches – from Malevich to Mondrian or Barnett Newman. With a certain sense of irony, but never cynicism, Baudevin’s work offers, in its own way, a commentary on the migration of signs, the recycling of the avant-garde and the visual organisation of today’s consumer society.

The exhibition at Kunsthaus Pasquart looks back at three decades of the artist’s work, putting emphasis on his conncection to music. As an obsessive collector of records and experimental and underground muisc enthusiast, Baudevin has often been compared to a DJ in the way he manipulates existing signs and uses samples to make them resonate in a specific way. From this perspective, Baudevin’s paintings appear to be moving away from radical abstraction, towards an embodied pop-like quality.