Julius Bissier

Bissier used irregularly torn or cut pieces of fabric for his tempera grassa works, which he made from the mid-1950s onwards. The support medium itself – its slightly frayed edges, the feel of the material – thus became an integral part of the composition. Tempera grassa as a painting medium also enabled him to achieve a rich spectrum of transparency, fluidity and density in these more often than not small-format works. Paint and the ground effectively interlock, fuse as one.