For over five decades, artist David Montalto has worked with the most delicate of tools, a diamond-tipped stylus, to create glass engravings of remarkable finesse and spiritual depth. Now, the Musée du Pays-d’Enhaut in Château-d’Oex presents a major retrospective of his life’s work, on view until 28 September.

Titled Flight of Imagination, the exhibition reflects Montalto’s lifelong celebration of freedom, creativity, and the inner world of vision. At the heart of his practice is stipple engraving. A painstaking technique that originated in the Netherlands in the late 17th century, involving the creation of images point by point. On glass, this method becomes almost alchemical, turning thousands of tiny incisions into luminous, multi-dimensional forms.

Montalto’s engravings are internationally recognised, with works held by institutions such as the Corning Museum of Glass (USA) and London’s Victoria and Albert Museum, as well as numerous private collections. His personal journey is as rich and layered as his work. Born into a family with strong religious roots, he showed early artistic promise, modelling small figures in clay at age six. After an early education in England, he was sent to Australia at the age of twelve, where he studied at Geelong Grammar School and came under the mentorship of the former Bauhaus artist Ludwig Hirschfeld-Mack.

This experience proved formative, leading him to pursue formal art training in Florence, where he studied painting for nine years under Primo Conti and won the Annigoni Prize. Beyond his engravings, the exhibition also reveals Montalto’s lighter, whimsical side, featuring miniature books, carved avocado pits, humorous ceramic pieces, and intricate découpage works. At it s cent re stands The Cross of the Cosmos, a monumental spiritual project conceived in 1959 and developed over nearly six decades. It is, in many ways, a portrait of the artist himself: visionary, meticulous, and quietly unwavering in his belief in the power of the imagination.

BY JEANETTE WICHMANN

On view until 28 September
Musée du Pays-d'Enhaut, Château-d'Oex
Open daily 13:30–17:30, closed Mondays

More info: www.davidmontalto.com