BERNARD BOUJOL

Visual artist, painter, architect, humanist

Bernard Boujol is a Swiss visual artist working in painting and drawing. He was born in Geneva and hails from the Tarn region in France, and for many years he has lived and worked in Nyon, on the shores of Lake Geneva.

Trained as an architect, he is an artist by passion and lifelong dedication.

Although fascinated by art since childhood, he initially chose a career in architecture, in which he developed professionally for decades – with numerous achievements and successes.

He returned to painting in the mid-1990s – not out of nostalgia, but driven by a desire for creative independence and a deeper dialogue with the world.

Painting became a space of freedom for him – a way to transcend the functional and aesthetic constraints imposed by architectural practice. It became the foundation of his daily life and a field for the systematic and consistent development of his distinctive visual language.

Bernard Boujol’s artistic practice is rooted in a rich cultural and intellectual background – literature, music, cinema, and the visual arts, all of which shape his inner landscape. Travel – both geographic and spiritual – from Asia to South America, has become for him not only a source of inspiration but also a vital tool of understanding. Each of these experiences has left its mark on the way he sees the world and its people.

Sensitive to the complexity of contemporary reality, Bernard Boujol continuously poses questions about the future of civilization, the relationships between cultures, and the place of the individual in a world full of tensions and contradictions.

He translates these reflections into the language of painting – personal, conscious, and engaged.

He has exhibited his work in solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland, France, and Belgium. Boujol remains an artist for whom art is not merely a form of expression but a way of life – attentive, open, and in constant search.

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Artist Statement

The painting of Bernard Boujol is a space of deep, personal dialogue with the world – a record of emotions, observations, and experiences gathered over years of artistic work and extensive travel. Bernard Boujol creates abstract art, rich in symbolism and meaning. Although it avoids literal representation, each of his works carries the memory and story of the place that inspired it. His paintings capture what is fleeting and difficult to name – an attempt to convey the atmosphere and spirit of a specific time and place.

Bernard Boujol’s works – chromatically intense, structurally complex, full of energy and dynamism – stem from a desire to break away from the conventions and limitations imposed on him by years of architectural practice. He treats the painting as a living organism – a pulsating, multi-layered surface that breathes with the rhythm of nature, memory and experience.

Bernard Boujol’s technique is the result of years of experimentation with natural materials – pigments, sand, powdered minerals. A key component is lime – a substance with strong structural properties that allows him to build depth and relief-like texture: multi-layered, porous, and cracked. Also characteristic – and intentional – is his use of the square format, which he sees as an ideal form containing both the circle and the triangle – basic spatial structures that echo his architectural background.

Color plays a fundamental role in his work – saturated, vibrant, often contrasting – it expresses the sense of freedom and expression the artist had long sought. It becomes a carrier of tension, emotion, and meaning, evoking natural landscapes: sun-scorched deserts, deep jungle greens, stone greys, and the rusty tones of earth. These references are subtle and indirect – his paintings do not tell stories explicitly but rather invite contemplation. They are visual, expressive impressions born of journeys – both geographical and internal, spiritual.

Bernard Boujol is constantly on the move – from Africa to South America, through Asia and the Middle East – and each journey leaves a trace in him. He transfers this onto canvas not as documentation, but as a sensorial reflection – an attempt to capture the essence of a place, its rhythm, color, and mood. He also draws inspiration from literature, art, music and poetry, deepening the symbolic dimension of his work.

Bernard Boujol – a keen observer of reality – creates paintings that encourage pause and introspection, inviting the viewer to look beneath the surface of color and material. His works are not merely aesthetic proposals but also a form of reflection on the world – its fragility, history, tensions, and perpetual movement.