From the 1990s, Bruno Maillard, a well-known photographer from Fribourg, produced a series of black-and-white portraits of people with whom he had a special relationship, gradually building up a panorama, a personal universe. Armand Niquille, his teacher at Collège St-Michel, is one of these “constellation of friendships”. The photographer took this frontal portrait of the […]

In the context of the thematic exhibition Urbanités. Four painters’ views of the city (1960-2010), the Fondation Armand Niquille is hosting a third round table (in French), open to the public, in the heart of the exhibition. Entitled Aménager la ville. Évolution des pratiques urbanistiques it will be led by three specialists in the field: […]

During the last years of his activity, the artist takes up once again the subject matter of the floral bouquet. He sets the bouquet in a tabernacle-like niche and adds to it religiously themed symbols. His paintings of frontal views of the city or of geometrically intense landscapes integrate implicitly the artist’s profound reflections on human existence, made fragile by his questioning yet strengthened by his certainty in the supernatural. These paintings are echoed in his late religious compositions depicting the mysteries of the Church.

The subject matter of an angel guiding human beings appears in the paintings. In works depicting the Trinity, the artist seeks to express the duality of earth and heaven, of the terrestrial and the divine. Emblematic paintings of the old “Tilleul of Morat” date from this period. Between 1979 and 1988 he paints this subject five times. As the central figure of the composition, symbol for the artist of the city’s past, the branches of the tree spread across the entirety of the canvas. The tree lined alley from Breitfeld to the Bourguillon, around the site of the Diesbach domain, attracts the artist’s attention, galvanized by his own sense of being excluded.

Urban landscapes remain the foremost subject matter. Yet, the nakedness of winter, its expression of silence and of a sense of solitude and expectation, is the season that finds a particular echo with the artist. He also paints floral bouquets, balanced compositions that reflect his search for harmony. His “diurnal” paintings counterbalance those of nocturnal life. These are the artist’s religiously inspired works, dominated by the figure of the crucified Christ, and on the backs of which he pens either prayers or poetic or theological reflections.

The first large-scale views of Fribourg, with natural elements associated with geometric constructions often dominated by the vertical silhouette of the tower of the cathedral, begin to appear in the artist’s work. The human figure also captures his attention. Portraits of local personalities and self-portraits alternate with stylised nudes, the latter sometimes depicted in mythological or theatrical settings.

The composition of the paintings become ever more structured while the subject matter diversifies in landscapes, urban settings, still life, religious or symbolic themes. These works foreshadow later paintings of a clearly defined center and a network of systematic lines. During this time the artist creates the Stations of the Cross for the church of Christ-Roi in Fribourg: fourteen paintings on a golden background, like a succession of icons, inserted into the cement walls of the church.

The artist is not indifferent to the destruction wrought by war. Images of the crucified Christ express the violence of armed conflict as well as the artist’s religious doubts. The emphatically ringed elongated figures of these works become characteristic of his formal language.

The artist draws on his surrounding countryside, arboreal settings, urban neighbourhoods and the lower-city of Fribourg (Basse-Ville) for his subject matter. He also paints his first still-lifes and works of a symbolic nature.

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Armand Niquille is born on 30 March 1912 in Fribourg. He is the son of Césarine Niquille, née Barbey, married to the baker, August Niquille, since 1908, who would later be employed by the local tramway company. An illegitimate child, Niquille creates a pictorial oeuvre marked by his secret origins and bearing his personal quandaries. (...)

Discover all the publications dedicated to Armand Niquille and his painting. Some can be ordered online.

A selection of photographic documents showing Niquille at different ages and some views of his studio.

Armand Niquille, his art and his vision of the world, are the subjects of films made in 1968, 1970 and 1992. It is possible to view them directly from this site.

Many press articles mention Armand Niquille's work. Relating exhibitions and events, they reflect the living presence of the Fribourg artist in the artistic landscape in the French part of Switzerland