For the joy of pictures: works from the collection of a passionate patron of the arts

Brigitte Mavromichalis was born in Stockholm in 1926, into a family of higher Swedish society. At the age of 20 she was sent to Switzerland by her parents to pursue an academic education at the University of Lausanne. There she met her future husband, who was of Greek origin. The couple, who loved traveling and culture, kept their Swiss residence but toured the world and visited countless museums. After her husband's death in 1982, Mavromichalis continued to devote herself to her passion for art, music, and sport, excelled in bridge at an international level, and remained a discreet patron of the arts until her demise in 2015. She put together her art collection, which grew over the decades, in utter freedom, and free of any hierarchy in media, style, and people. It consisted mainly of paintings, but also included drawings and prints, and was characterized by great diversity. In 2023, the Musée d'art du Valais in Sion received a bequest of 45 works from Brigitte Mavromichalis's collection. This book reflects the diversity of this legacy. It portrays the collector and her bequest: all these works are explained by distinguished art historians in concise texts.

Autorentext
Laurence Schmidlin ist Kunsthistorikerin und Kuratorin und leitet seit 2022 als Direktorin das Kunstmuseum Wallis in Sitten.