La bibliothèque d'Olivier Mosset

Olivier Mosset is a Swiss-born artist who lives and works in my hometown of Tucson, Arizona, in the Sonoran Desert. He was a founding member of the acronymically named mid-1960s B.M.P.T. Art Group, which included radically Minimalist painters Daniel Buren, Olivier Mosset himself, Michel Parmentier, and Niele Toroni. The Paris-based collective elevated a democratically produced art object over Greenbergian ideas of near-spiritual artistic authorship and brushstroke, using a machine-like execution of colloquially understood signs and symbols and hard geometric forms. It is fitting that the group came of age alongside the publication of Roland Barthes' 1967 essay "The Death of the Author" / "La mort de l'auteur," which argued for prioritizing the reading of a text or sign as seen from the perspective of the viewer or reader, rather than that of the artist. Still young during the Paris student movements of 1968, Mosset is an artist who continues to live out his ideals. Despite his art historical significance, fame, and market prominence, Mosset leads a modest life of relative simplicity. His home studio features a twin mattress covered in a wool blanket, on which he sleeps, along with his canvases, paints, and extensive collection of mostly esoteric literature. I captured images of Mosset playfully showing visitors how he stores some of his books—using a retired refrigerator as a makeshift bookshelf. Mosset is often seen driving around Tucson in Levi's 501s, a black leather jacket, and chaps, either on his Harley Davidson motorcycle or in his El Camino, both customized in the style of Southwestern Chicano hot rod culture. Like many artists of his generation, he has avoided the market-saturated art capitals of New York, London, and Paris, choosing instead a life rooted in the romantic notions of individualism and independence typical of the American West.

*Readers/viewers can click on thumbnails for larger versions of work(s) that open up in a new window. Thank you, Samuel

**Special thanks to Olivier for allowing me to visit and share his studio with me. **