The exhibition pays tribute to one of the most original and influential figures on the Swiss contemporary art scene, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder (Basel, 1945, lives in Zug). In a career spanning more than sixty years, Schnyder explored photography, sculpture, performance, and painting. His practice manages to be both independent yet central, and remains faithful to a key principle: art as a daily practice, an exercise in discipline and freedom.

This approach also informs the new works presented at MASI Lugano: more than one hundred previously unseen oil paintings created between 2024 and 2025. Alongside a corpus of studio works depicting a wide range of subjects, the artist has produced a series of plein-air landscapes in various regions of Switzerland — “visual notebooks” in which nature takes centre stage. The exhibition also features two iconic works by the artist: the monumental Stilleben (Still Life, 1970) and the series Billige Bilder (Cheap Paintings, 2000–2019).

Curated by Tobia Bezzola and Ludovica Introini.