Eternod Mermod, Switzerland - MEET THE COLLECTOR Series Part Thirteen
I got to hang out with Jean-David Mermod and Philippe Eternod at the recent Outsider Art Fair in Paris, where they had a booth packed full of firm favourites from the Outsider Art World. Warm and friendly in their approach, they can always be found with wine and cheese towards the end of the day. These two guys made the perfect pairing for part thirteen of my series, as not only are they collectors but they are art dealers too, with one having a gallery space in Lausanne. This text has been drawn from three sources … the collectors themselves, a text by the late Roger Cardinal for the exhibition of their collection in Lugano in 2001 and a text by Jacqueline Porret - Forrel from the same exhibition.
Philippe Eternod and Jean-David Mermod
1, 2, 3 and 4. When did your interests in the field of outsider/folk art begin? When did you become collectors of this art? Can you tell us a bit about your backgrounds? What is it that draws your eye away from contemporary art to outsider/folk art? Or do you collect both?
The late Roger Cardinal wrote an article on Jean-David Mermod and Philippe Eternod, where he wrote the following: “The illuminating fact about the Eternod Mermod Collection is that years back its two Swiss owners elected to pool their resources and to launch a single undertaking on a basis of mutual respect. Consciously monitored, their enterprise has swiftly moved beyond hesitant negotiation, and has by now attained a forthright momentum. The Eternod Mermod Collection is a landmark on the international map of marginal or autodidact art.
In the case of Jean-David Mermod, the impulse to collect was first manifested in a passion for old books. As for his specific attachment to the visual arts this can be traced to his inheritance of a considerable body of artworks, including drawings by Louis Soutter. Mermod’s Grandfather had edited the first monograph on Soutter in 1961, and had acquired over 700 drawings either during the artist’s lifetime or after his death. It was this corpus that formed the nucleus of the younger Mermod’s collection.
Philippe Eternod for his part was attracted to art from an early age, his earliest acquisition being a lithograph at the age of 15. He and Mermod had been contemporaries at college in Lausanne, yet it was only in their mid-twenties that they compared notes and realised how much they had in common: by that time, each was, and still remains, a keen collector of contemporary art. But this was not to be the foundation of their mutual project. This was definitely achieved in about 1990, when each found himself struggling to raise money to buy a drawing by Aloise Corbaz which had come onto the market: they sensibly concluded that a joint purchase would be the best solution. In 1991 they pooled their resources. Almost at once they realised that the spirit of the project demanded not occultation but exhibition. As Jean-David puts it ‘our ultimate goal is to share our passion with others, with all its errors and omissions.’”
Jacqueline Porret – Forrel also wrote an article on the two collectors: “Like Jean Dubuffet, our collectors give weight to the life of the artist, conferring respect and dignity to each of them. Efforts were made to acquire more works by the same author, in order to illustrate their different shadings. Without prejudice their only criteria of choice is their instincts as Art Brut hunters together with a highly developed intuition for this spirit. And they are never wrong. They do not always have the same tastes but each respects the sensibilities of the other, without in any way compromising the unity of the collection… The great original Art Brut artists are all present in this collection, with the exception of Laure, whose works, saved by a miracle from destruction, were collected in their entirety by Jean Dubuffet.”
Both collectors are interested in and collect contemporary art as well as outsider art.
With artist Michel Nedjar in the early 1990s
5. What style of work, if any, is of particular interest to you within this field? (for example is it embroidery, drawing, sculpture, and so on)
We are more into drawings. This is partly due to storage, however we do have a few sculptures, especially by artists like Michel Nedjar, Stefan Holzmüller, Meani, François Burland or the Anonyme Poya’s sculptor, but also, we do think there is probably often more spontaneity in drawings.
6. Would you say you had a favourite artist or piece of work within your collection? And why?
I don’t think there is a favourite artist for either of us. It is important to look at the works and of course if you don’t have them all on the walls you always discover new things when you look at them again. We often discover works we may not have seen for a while when we looking for others things. At the beginning of the 2000s it was more difficult to collect things, but we began more to re-discover pieces in our collection again. There are always new things to discover as well, such as things on the back of Madge Gill postcards and new things we haven’t noticed before in Aloise Corbaz pieces. We always tried to have large set of works by the same author, like Madge Gill, Aloise, Scottie, Monsiel, Soutter, Wittlich and so on …
Installation photograph of the exhibition featuring their collection in LAM, Villeneuve-d'Ascq
7. Is there an exhibition in this field of art that you have felt has been particularly important? And why?
The exhibition ‘Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art’ in 1992 made by the Los Angeles County Museum. It had contributions from Roger Cardinal, John MacGregor and Allen S. Weiss. After Los Angeles it traveled to Museu Nacional Reina Sofia where we first saw it and then to Kunsthalle Basel and finally to Setagaya Art Museum in Tokyo. The exhibition crossed works from outsider artists with contemporary artists like Annette Messager, Jim Dine, Georg Baselitz, Max Ernst, Arnulf Rainer and so on.
Philippe said that the contemporary art pieces in this exhibition were not the most exceptional, but that it was important for audiences to see that Jean Dubuffet was not the only one who took inspiration from the work of artists falling in the art brut category and that art brut could be exhibited in parallel with modern and contemporary art. They made a book about it and it opened up the field of art brut. Philippe doesn’t like the battle the two forms of art have. He doesn’t like that people say outsider artists are the real and true artists because they have suffered more in comparison to contemporary artists, as he does not believe this to be systemically true.
We have the chance to live in Lausanne, the cradle of art brut’s museums and many of their exhibitions have been particularly important for us.
8. Where would you say you buy most of your work from: a studio, art fairs, exhibitions, or direct from artists or auctions?
We buy work from everywhere. Our first piece in common was an Aloise Corbaz. We bought this piece in auction in the 1980s without a goal of having a collection, but we bought the Aloise together, not to fight in an auction against each other, but thinking we would do the same for the next one. We both already had works from Louis Soutter and Francois Burland. Then we started to collect together. Our first Scottie Wilson’s were bought in the 1980s from Henry Boxer in England. We then bought Madge Gill pieces from an auction in Switzerland in late 1980s. We also bought other Madge Gill and Scottie’s in London galleries. A gallery in Bern showed Nedjar and Oswald Tschirtner where we bought an important numbers of early pieces by these two artists. We bought some works from Art en Marge In Brussels and a collector proposed to us some Edmund Monsiel. We also exchanged with other collectors and people who knew we were collecting art brut started to call us and offer us things. A gallery in Switzerland where I (Philippe) used to buy contemporary art sold us another Edmund Monsiel.
As there were not many auctions or galleries in 1990s in the field of art brut, we often exchanged works with other collectors. It was like those basketball and football card swaps from that time! It was very easy to do exchanges then. There were no prices or pretense back then. We were exchanging Madge Gill works against Adolf Wolfli and Aloise Corbaz. There were not a lot of collectors at this time, but a lot of doctors who had the art in the first place from working with the artists as patients. It is harder to do this now, as the prices have increased, so things can’t be so freely exchanged. We always pick pieces that we love and so want to add them to our collection.
Installation photograph of the exhibition featuring their collection in LAM, Villeneuve-d'Ascq
9. As you have a large collection now, what sort of pieces are you looking to continue to add to your collection?
As with many collectors, we would love to have a Bill Traylor or Henry Darger, but they are really expensive now. We like to add artworks from artists that we don’t know much about yet. We are keen to be surprised and amazed by works we do not know yet. The most important thing for us is to discover.
10. Is there a lot of your collection hung in your home, or is it hung elsewhere, or do’ you only exhibit several pieces at once in your home?
Jean-David has some of the walls of his house, and I (Philippe) have some in places in shadow in my home and so we have hung pieces in these like Aloise Corbaz, Carlo Zinelli, Carlo Keshishian, Soutter and Gugging artists. Alongside these I have contemporary art works too as well as some Indian folk art drawings – Warli drawings – in particular by an artist called Mashe. I mix it all together. Jean-David mixes art brut with modern art and also contemporary art.
In short there is a small part of the collection in Jean-David’s house, a small part in mine, and then we have two depots – I also have the chance to hang work in a place I share with my brother in the Alps from canton de Vaud, where I spend many weekends now that I am retired. Jean-David also owns a chalet in the Walliser Alps, where he also can enjoy works that he has hanging on his walls there.
Installation photograph of the exhibition featuring their collection in LAM, Villeneuve-d'Ascq
11. You often organise shows yourself in Lausanne at Galerie du Marche… when did you set this up and why?
Jean-David set the gallery up more than 20 years ago. However, he shows also modern art and more and only occasionally does exhibitions of outsider art. He also enjoys organising collective exhibitions on a particular subject using modern art, contemporary art and art brut.
12. I often see pieces from your collection loaned to other larger shows, what remits do you use to loan works to these exhibitions, or are you approached?
The collection in its totality is an immensely impressive 4,000+ works, very delicate and carefully archived in files between one exhibition and another. We loan regularly to other shows, as well as organising our own exhibitions and taking part in the Outsider Art Fair.
Jacqueline Porret – Forrel’s article states: “It is also very positive that their collection travels. The two friends in fact share the same idea that the collection was created to be seen, if not in its totality (impossible) then at least in its most important aspects. They in fact willingly lend out parts of their collection to various museums or groups for thematic exhibitions in France, Italy, Belgium, Holland and the United States and some museums have even created entire exhibitions around the collection. The owners consider themselves the ambassadors of Art Brut and through this generous diffusion they make sure that recognition of this art form goes beyond its original spirit.”
13. You have a stand at the Outsider Art Fair in Paris – can you explain why you like the crossover of art dealer and collector?
Eight years ago when Andrew Edlin bought the Outsider Art Fair, he approached us to be part of the fair. After having made an extensive statement exhibition of our collection, we noted that we have a lot similar work by the same artists and we decided to participate and sell some of the doubles in order to acquire other work. Jean-David had the gallery, I (Philippe) worked in a financial company for 34 years and I retired 18 months ago. So we decided to go in as partners into the art fair.
Installation photograph of the exhibition featuring their collection in LAM, Villeneuve-d'Ascq (featuring Edmund Monsiel’s work)
14. Do you take part in any other art fairs?
We only do the Outsider Art Fair and only since Andrew has been doing it. We did it two-three times in New York, but stopped due to the weather at that time of year perhaps affecting footfall and sales and the high costs of taking part in a fair in America. We did have success there, but now only do the Paris fair – maybe we will one day do New York again in the future.
15. Is there anything else that you would like to add?
It was a great opportunity and a great chance to collect together and to start our collection in the middle of the 1980s … and to have four eyes instead of two. It made things easier with contacts too … I (Philippe) was closer to Madeleine Lommel from L’Aracine, and Jean-David was closer to someone like Geneviève Roulin or Michel Thevoz, so this created more opportunities. We feel that we have had a great chance and it has been a great experience. We have made a lot of discoveries and had the chance to meet people who were in the art brut world since the 1940s. The most important thing for us is to have fun!