Pietro Sarto. Metamorfosi infinite

This exhibition pays tribute to the painter and engraver par excellence Pietro Sarto (*1930), who has worked tirelessly to investigate the many techniques employed in etching and the multiple expressions of oil painting.

After training in Paris in the 1950s, Sarto returned to Switzerland, where he founded the
Atelier de Saint-Prex at the beginning of the 1970s. Colour engraving proved fertile ground for the research he went on to pursue, the results prompting him to explore printing and the properties of inks. His reflections on colour and the dialogue between different artistic processes were further enriched by his encounter with the techniques used by the pioneers of photography. Sarto moves freely from one technique to another, creating perpetually shifting works that lead their viewers into landscapes where reality mingles with dreams.
The exhibition’s thematic arrangement allows the evolution of the different motifs to be traced chronologically, from the end of the 1950s until the present, revealing another of the artist’s passions: literature. Sarto has illustrated works by his favourite writers – such as Dante, Rilke and Ramuz – and his expression of his own worldview has also been inspired by them.

Exhibition curated by the Fondation William Cuendet & Atelier de Saint-Prex,
Vevey, and the Museo Villa dei Cedri, Bellinzona.

Many thanks to the Association des Amis de Pietro Sarto.