A Swiss Modernist Painter

Flowers in a Vase, 1970, watercolor on paper, 51 x 41 cm (framed), 14.2 x 10.5 cm (unframed)

Flowers in a Vase, 1970

This watercolor depicts a color-intensive, loosely composed bouquet of flowers, consisting of dynamically placed shades of yellow, red, and green. The individual blossoms and leaves are only hinted at, dissolving into a network of quick, gestural lines, which gives the bouquet a lively, almost vibrating effect. The vase is slender, kept nearly transparent, and acts more as a graphic support than a material object. The background remains neutral, allowing the floral motif to stand out even more prominently.
The work belongs to Evard’s late creative phase, which is characterized by greater freedom in the handling of form and color. Here, the artist returns to a more expressive, spontaneous style. The piece combines structural clarity with painterly dissolution, typical of Evard’s later phase, in which he loosens strict compositions in favor of a more playful, emotional application of color. The use of watercolor reinforces this impression of lightness and transparency, as the colors flow into one another and convey a certain immediacy. Overall, the work shows how Evard, in his later years, found a synthesis of earlier constructive tendencies and a freer, almost lyrical formal language.