Charles Menge was a Swiss painter who was born on April 16, 1920 in Sion and died on January 1, 2009 in the same city.
His career as a painter spanned a period of 65 years. His first exhibition took place in 1944 in his native town of Sion and the last one in 2008 in the village of Savièse. His work is well worth getting to know and exploring. Entering the world of an artist is like following a personal path that each person takes at their own pace, according to their desires and sensitivities.
Among the 400 or so creations that we will be presenting to you, there will be some that will touch something deep within you, and that is the whole point of the encounter between the sensibility of an artist and that which animates those who look, listen and feel.
Charles Menge had a rich and intense inner life that he expressed through his paintings. He was also a great lover of literature, philosophy, poetry and history. The texts that he found beautiful, inspiring, meaningful and intelligent, that touched and challenged him, he cut out and pasted together, thus creating a collection of writings. Over the years, he thus accumulated a series of files containing these texts.
He also had a habit of writing down his thoughts in notebooks and other loose sheets of paper. He had a great sensitivity to the condition of Man in the sense of the Human Being during his time on this Earth, while cultivating hope for his future in the Hereafter.
Looking at his paintings, we discover the inner life that inhabited him. His themes have a universal resonance such as nature, death, war, faith, beauty, love, women, the afterlife. His figurative style of painting exudes an energy and a life from his characters, some of whom are painted without faces. They are often depicted in their family and working environments, in their natural element.
They are sometimes integrated into historical events that have marked our history, or through their beliefs, depicting tales and legends that have marked the history of humanity. Charles Menge was a very religious man and scenes from the Bible can also be found in a number of his paintings.
This is the meaning of painting, to awaken something deep and personal within us and to allow these emotions, memories and sensations to rise to the surface. Art in general, but perhaps painting in particular, which stimulates the visual sense, can have that something magical that awakens our spirit to something transcendent that goes beyond us and is found outside of time and our space of life and thoughts. Tales and legends, beliefs and stories, historical events and mysteries have all accompanied us at one time or another in our childhood, our adult life, our old age, in short, during our time on this Earth.
Who has never shivered when confronted with stories of monsters and villains, felt hope at the idea of the existence of an invisible world full of hope, felt a thrill when thinking back to feelings of love.
Who has never asked themselves the question of the meaning of our life here and now, why I was born, why some live happily, while others know only suffering. These existential questions have never ceased to occupy Charles Menge’s thoughts, even to torment him. From his modest position as an artist on this Earth, he has tried to answer them in his own way through his paintings.
When you look at and observe his paintings and drawings, some of you may feel emotions and sensations awakening that you have experienced at one time or another. They are there, just waiting to come to the surface to be experienced and understood by the being that you have become and who is looking at this painting.
Key facts
His younger years
He studied in Geneva at the School of Industrial Arts, where he was awarded a first prize in lithography, and at the School of Fine Arts; his teachers were Gabriel Edouard Haberjahn, Philippe Hainard, Jacques Jacobi, Fernand Blondin, Fernand Bovy and Albert Rheinwald. He then took a job as a graphic designer in a cigarette factory in Zurich. He did his basic training and military service. In 1944, he exhibited his works for the first time in Sion and was a great success; he undertook study trips to Florence, Paris, Amsterdam, Leuven and Provence.
1950-60
He exhibited at the Brandt Brandt gallery in Amsterdam and produced a large mural for the restaurant of the University of Louvain (9 x 2.4 m). In Sion, he created a mural in the boys’ primary school and several frescoes, including a historical fresco in the barracks of Sion (9×2.2 m), a fresco at the Valais center for pneumology in Crans-Montana (8×2.2 m) and another at the Valais museum of vines and wine in Sal-quenen (5 x 1.8 m). It will then return permanently to Sion and will be installed in Montorge above Sion.
1970-1990
He continued to develop his art to the point where he became recognized in the field. One of his works was chosen by the Unicef jury in New York to be exhibited there. The consecration. He then continued to exhibit in several galleries, especially in Switzerland.
2000-2009
Charles Menge has exhibited regularly in Sion, Sierre, Martigny, Monthey, Ardon, Montana, Montreux, Aubonne, Allaman, Bern, Amsterdam, Lausanne, Geneva, Neuchâtel and Basel. His works can be found in numerous private and public collections, particularly in Paris, Brussels, New York, Frankfurt, Amsterdam, Geneva, Basel and Bern.
Charles Menge died on January 1st, 2009 while reading in his studio in Montorge.
