Alice Bailly was a Swiss artist who moved freely between Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, and Dadaism without ever fully belonging to any of them. After studying in Geneva, she moved to Paris in 1904, where she became closely connected to the European avant-garde scene and began developing her own visual language, marked by vivid colors, geometric forms, and an almost musical sense of rhythm and movement. Her works were exhibited at the Salon d’Automne and the Salon des Indépendants alongside some of the era’s most radical artists.

When the First World War broke out, Bailly returned to Switzerland and created her famous “wool paintings,” in which colored strands of yarn replaced brushstrokes, giving the works an unusual tactile quality. She continued experimenting throughout her life and became an important figure in Swiss modernism.

In 1936, she was commissioned to paint large murals for the theater in Lausanne, a project that took a severe toll on her health. Two years later, she died of tuberculosis at the age of 65.