Youri Messen-Jaschin

Enter Youri Messen-Jaschin Gallery

From (1958 - 1962) his artistic studies lead him to the higher national school of fine arts (student of Professor Arno Roberto Cami) and to the Practical school of the Sorbonne, division of social sciences (history of art, Professor Pierre Francastel) in Paris.

From 1962 until 1965, he went to the School of fine arts in Lausanne. He worked with the engraver and painter Ernest Pizzotti. «Expo of Lausanne» in 1964 with his kinetic glass and acrylic sculptures. He worked two years at the “Center of contemporary engraving” in Geneva. Then, he worked in Zurich, where he broadened his pictorial perspective with the painter Friederich Kuhn thru experience of the circle in the face. From 1968 until 1970, he acted at the University of Högskolan för design & Konsthantwerk in Göteborg, where he created researches of textile kinetic objects. In 1967, he met at an exhibition in Göteborgs Konsthall Jesús - Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Julio Le Parc. Speaking with these artists, he discovered to be fascinated by optical art. He decided to devote all his research to kinetic art. An extended stay in Göteborg gave him the opportunity to constantly evolve in movement and geometric shapes, integrating them in his textiles and oil paintings. His research in optical art had a signifcant impact in this area in Scandinavia.

In 1968, Youri received the first prize for the Swiss contemporary engraving art. The same year, he got a scholarship from the Swedish government. In the 1970s, he stayed in Hamburg where he continued to work with artists from northern Germany, collaborating with him on different monumental projects. In 1970, he created a kinetic sculpture for Gould in Eistetten, near the Black Forest in Germany.

He took up residence in Bern from 1970 to 1981. His various stays abroad allowed each time to establish a link with artists working in the same artistic movement. Architecture plays an important role in his paintings and sculptures, the search for movement Op Art (kinetic art) in architectural space is a whole, and he could talk about it with Oscar Niemeyer, Burle Marx, in Rio de Janeiro, Otake in Sao Paolo in Brazil, and Clorindo Testa in Buenos Aires. He stayed in Caracas at the end of his trip, where he staged theatre and choreography of his own works which are presented at the Ateneo of Caracas and the “VIth Festival Internacional de Teatro“, Fundacion Eugenio Mendoza, Asociación cultural Humboldt (Goethe-Institut) and the Alliance Française.

He participated in many international exhibitions and got awards from research in optical art in Italy. His works are in private collections, in national and international museums.

He also had the privilege to sell his unique tapestry in the style of Pop art “More Light”. He was enthusiastic about the use of color in this art style. The Contemporary Art Museum Migros in Zurich was interested in this work. This tapestry was made in the 1970s in his loft in Zollikofen near Bern in Switzerland. This tapestry belongs to the collection of Migros Vaud Switzerland.

After a stay of several months in New York, he returned to Switzerland where he took up residence in Bern, where he lived for eleven years. During his stay, he frequently exhibited at the Kunsthalle and other local museums.

He created for the Swiss Post, 3 stamps in optical art in 2010. Museums focus on his work: Kunsthaus Zurich, Federal Polytechnic School in Zurich, Cabinet des estampes in Geneva and abroad, the Royal Museum of fine arts in Brussels. The Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam as well as other museums and private collectors in the United States, Japan and Europe buy his kinetic works to complete their collections.