Pierre Keller

Pierre Keller was born on January 9, 1945 in Gilly, in the Canton of Vaud, Switzerland. In 1965, he graduated as a graphic designer from the “Ecole Cantonale des beaux-arts et d’arts appliqués" in Lausanne with first class honours.

Keller then started a multifaceted and brilliant career as an artist, both in graphic and plastic arts, representing Switzerland in many prestigious events such as the International Poster Biennal – Warsaw, the 9th “Biennale des jeunes” in Paris and the 17th International Biennal of São Paolo – as well as a publisher, teacher, art consultant, exhibition curator and organizer.

In 1991 he represented the Government of the Canton of Vaud during the festivities of the 700th anniversary of the Swiss Confederation and became director of the ECAL in 1995, a school which he swiftly led among the ten best schools of art in Europe.

As a music enthusiast P. Keller is a member of the Foundation Board of the Montreux Jazz Festival. He was proud to be promoted “Officier des Arts et des Lettres” by the French Government in 2000. In 2004, P. Keller was appointed as a titular professor at the EPFL (Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne).

Icing on the cake, he was granted in 2006 the Award of the Foundation for the Art of the Canton de Vaud for his influence in the field of the art, and in 2007 awarded an honorary doctorate by the European University in Barcelona. The same year, he won also the prestigious Merit Design Preis Schweiz. In 2009, he was awarded by the “Prix de la Ville de Lausanne”.