Gérald Ducimetière (26 April 1940 – 26 January 2022) was a Swiss-born French artist. In 1994, he changed his name to John Aldus when he became a French national.

Biography

After he finished his studies at the

Geneva University of Art and Design Geneva University of Art and Design (HEAD) () is a European art and design school founded in 2006, and belonging to the network of the University of Applied Sciences and Arts of Western Switzerland. History HEAD was formed in 2006 from the mer ...

in 1961, Ducimetière earned several federal and cantonal scholarships. In 1965, he displayed his first exhibition at the

Musée Rath The Musée Rath is an art museum in Geneva, used exclusively for temporary exhibitions. Its building is the oldest purpose-built art museum in Switzerland, and the original home of Musée d'Art et d'Histoire (Geneva), Geneva's Musée d'Art et d'H ...

Geneva Geneva ( , ; ) ; ; . is the List of cities in Switzerland, second-most populous city in Switzerland and the most populous in French-speaking Romandy. Situated in the southwest of the country, where the Rhône exits Lake Geneva, it is the ca ...

, which showed his first paintings and drawings. His artistic activities diversified and led him to photography, film, sculpture, murals, graphic design, installations, and performances. In the 1970s, he produced the installation ''L'Arbre à l'envers'' (Tree in heaven), which displayed a tree which appeared to be planted upside-down. In 1973, he displayed an axe in front of the Musée Rath which was called ''la Blessure'', which he later explained encompassed the museum as a whole. In 1978, he launched a traveling exhibition titled ''Some flovers at...'', which presented over one hundred different pieces. Ducimietière was also active in graphic design, exhibiting at the Cabinet des Estampes in Geneva in 1982. That same year, he won a competition put forth by the City of Geneva with an exhibition titled ''L'Alter Ego''. In 1994, he settled in London and took French nationality, changing his name to John Aldus. He died in London on 26 January 2022 at the age of 81.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ducimetière, Gérald 1940 births 2022 deaths Swiss contemporary artists Naturalized citizens of France French contemporary artists People from the canton of Geneva