Long and thin, dark, large forehead, caustic and reserved, Thierry Barbier-Mueller was the youngest son of a Genevan sibling born in the heart of art.
Les Barbier-Mueller, whose homonymous museum is opposite the family home in the old town, rue Calvin.
Like Josef Müller, the father of his mother Monique and mythical collector who, in 1907, aged 20, devoted his income for an entire year to the purchase of a painting by Ferdinand Hodler.
Like his father Jean-Paul Barbier, who became Barbier-Mueller through his marriage, an erudite collector of primitive arts and passionate about French poetry.
His sudden death, Tuesday, January 24, from cardiac arrest at only 62 years old, plunged the wise business city into a stupor.
For a long time, the three brothers, Gabriel, Stéphane and Thierry, were the well-bred sons, always one step behind, behind the spectacular couple formed by their parents, Monique and Jean-Paul Barbier-Mueller, who died respectively in December 2016 and August 2019. Then their tempers were expressed, each choosing a particular path to art.
Gabriel founded with his wife The Ann and Gabriel Barbier-Mueller Museum, in Dallas, which houses their magnificent collection of samurai armor.
Stéphane was passionate about numismatics and history.
Thierry or TBM - his nickname in the art world - was immersed in contemporary art.
His collection of designer chairs is currently making headlines at the Mudac in Lausanne (
A Chair and
You
, until February 5,
This secret had taken the pen to present her in a catalog full of wit, scholarly references and tributes to her family.
“At 20, do you aspire, with a mixture of candor and arrogance, to be yourself, assert your personality and chart your own course independently?
The years pass, we realize that, as Nicolas Bouvier said, the phrase
“I never owed anything to anyone”
is absurd.
And that one is rich from the loans and debts that one has contracted to shape oneself.
In fact, I think I owe a lot to that taciturn, rather austere, yet ardent and passionate lover of art in all its forms, Josef Müller.
»
Lots of fantasy and joie de vivre to display the 211 pieces from his collection of 650 chairs, at the Mudac in Lausanne.
Valerie Duponchelle / Le Figaro
He made a fine portrait of this legendary ancestor whose collection has become a family museum, from the art of the Cyclades to Picasso, from Ferdinand Hodler and Cézanne to the primitive arts.
“He ended his life in a house where so many works had been accumulated that the critic Pierre Schneider, during a visit, had doubted the existence of walls as the hanging was tight.
Little-known Swiss painters rubbed shoulders with big international names, antique busts, Cycladic idols, Oceanian sculptures, Japanese engravings, African seats...”.
Her parents are intense and very different collectors, literate and remote detective with Jean-Paul, passionate about Africa and traveler with Monique.
"So here I am, a young man in the
1980s, a descendant of the third generation with my brothers Gabriel and
Stéphane, determined not to do things either out of convenience or to respond to a tacit expectation"
.
His father complains of the constant cash worries caused by his collection.
TBM promises to be reasonable.
“However, my first purchases were not so reasonable: the shock I felt in the mid-
1980s at the sight of a magnificent
Aigle
de Baselitz from 1978 awakened in me an irresistible temptation.
I confirmed the purchase to
(Basel gallery owner)
Ernst
Beyeler without thinking too much - before realizing that my eyes had been bigger than my stomach.
I was 25"
.
TBM paid the amount in dollars in two installments spaced six months apart.
For lack of space for this
Eagle
2 m high, his dear mother lent him a wall at the entrance of the family home.
TBM fell into the category of
“closet collectors”
, imbued with secrets, defiance and mystery, which Sacha Guitry opposed to
“showcase collectors”
.
Along with contemporary art, this bulimic expressed all his imagination with his collection of designer chairs, started with André Dubreuil, Ron Arad or Tom Dixon, he no longer knew.
And now a vast repertoire of 650 pieces, from the most absurd like David Burry's
Object-seat shoe
, in leopard print, to the most minimalist, the
Spring Chair
by François Dallégret (1967), from Gaetano Pesce to Niki de Saint Phalle.
The staging of 211 of these chairs (168 creators) by the brilliant Bob Wilson at the Mudac in Lausanne highlights his boundless appetite for
"research and innovative formal proposals, the use and assembly of experimental materials, the games of scales and functions from its abundant collection”
.
“Whether because of his passion for art or his real estate activities, Thierry Barbier-Mueller was a key figure in Geneva life. Father of five children, the collector and promoter died on Tuesday, following a cardiac arrest
”, announced Thursday evening the Geneva daily,
Le Temps
.
“The approximately 200 employees of the real estate group SPG-Rytz (Société Privée de Gérance-Rytz) which he had managed since 2000 were informed by two of his daughters, Marie and Valentine.
They praised "
his overflowing energy, his state of continuous movement, his multifaceted creativity and his abundant ideas
".
“
This Genevan was at the head of the SPG-Rytz group (which brings together the private management company and the Vaudois company Rytz & Cie).
The sudden departure of the man who had become one of the biggest players in the real estate sector in French-speaking Switzerland leaves the community in shock
,” said
La Tribune de Genève
.
“We will retain the image of an extremely warm and benevolent man who committed himself without counting.
He notably fought for the defense of private property in Geneva by bringing his enormous expertise and always timely reflections.
He had the ability to rise above the debate in order to seek the public interest of the
people of Geneva”, greeted Christophe Aumeunier, secretary general of the Geneva Real Estate Chamber.
Niki de Saint Phalle, Serpent chair with double head, 1999. Painted wood, ceramic inlays and mirror (1454 x 111 x 112.5 cm).
Prototype.
Valerie Duponchelle / Le Figaro
Former President of the Council of State Mark Muller highlights his avant-garde and visionary side.
“From my point of view, he was an intellectual who had very sharp thoughts on a certain number of themes such as ecology.
He believed that the densification of buildings was a way to preserve nature.
He was also opposed to the downgrading of agricultural land in the Cherpines.
This large owner was nevertheless a liberal at heart, notes the president of the PLR (Liberal-Radical Party) Bertrand Reich, who has worked with the promoter on numerous occasions.
"
Even if we opposed any projects he might have, he was always interested in discussing.
He tried to understand what his interlocutor wanted in order to find a solution.
What always impressed me was his love for Geneva.
He could have moved to be less subject to the tax authorities, for example, but he liked being here and participating in the construction of our township.
He was a builder and a morally elegant man in all circumstances.
“We really had a wonderful collaboration. Thierry Barbier-Mueller had a sharp eye, and a great curiosity”
, testified Susanne Hilpert, co-curator of the exhibition
“A chair and You”
at the Mudac in Lausanne.
“What mattered most to him was originality, the way in which the designer understood the chair as an object of formal research, material and aesthetic quality.
The inventiveness of artists and designers never ceased to fascinate him.
He was very happy with the success of this exhibition.”
Father of five daughters from two marriages (including one with one of the daughters of the former Central African emperor Bokassa), Thierry Barbier-Mueller was born in 1960. He studied in New York, earned a diploma in
brokerage
there
. raw materials.
It was in 2000 that he succeeded his father at the head of the SPG-Rytz group.
Lately, the promoter had started to pass the baton to the next generation.
His daughters Marie and Valentine joined the management of the company in 2016 and 2019 respectively.
It was Marie Barbier-Mueller, one of his five daughters, who wrote the preface to his catalogue.
“Collecting is a senseless act.
A way to find yourself, to get lost, to escape - maybe the ultimate freedom?
His great-aunt
Gertrud
Muller - still a minor and having no regard for the approval of her guardian - acquired in 1908 the
Portrait of the chief supervisor of the Saint-Paul hospital (Trabuc)
by Vincent Van Gogh in an affirmed act.
His mother, Monique, was challenged in 2000 by a particularly radical work by the American icon of the
1980s, Jeff Koons,
Woman in tub
- an audacity that was recognized and welcomed.
IT is therefore logical that my father, Thierry Barbier-Mueller, allowed himself to be guided by his flair and his intuition to build up over the years what is today one of the largest collections of chairs in the world
.
It was Marie who paid a very fine tribute, literate and modest, at her grandfather's funeral.
All of Geneva was there.
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