Ferruccio Garopesani

Painter and designer since 1956 he was active in Switzerland. In paintings, graphics, mosaics, scenographic illustrations, stained glass windows and frescoes ...

Garo, because everyone in Friborg (especially in the Bass) called him by his diminutive, even though he was born Ferruccio Garopesani on October 6, 1914, in Milan. From his native Italy, the painter has kept the warmth of tones and the ease of the line, acquired in the prestigious academies of Milan and Bergamo. After moving to Paris, he discovered Switzerland in the mid-1950s, settled first in Lausanne, then in Leysin, before setting up his easel in Friborg.

Used to painting on the motif, in the lower streets of the city, Garo quickly became a “character known and loved by all, as described by Stefan Ledergerber, director of the Gutenberg Museum in Freiburg. He first painted oil, in the street. Then, back in the studio, he drew on his lithographic stones from the same subject.

This technique of reproduction on stone, invented at the end of the 18th century, makes it possible to preserve the delicacy of the pencil, while offering infinite color variations, as evidenced by the ten monochrome inks shown upstairs, which ultimately form a proof. color, in the very enlightening didactic part of the exhibition, which notably features the last stone still drawn by the artist.

He died in 1985.