29 January 2022

England & Co are sad to announce the death last week of the artist John Aldus who exhibited with us in recent years. John, born in Geneva as Gérald Ducimetière, was a French/Swiss sculptor, painter, photographer and multimedia artist. He changed his name to John Aldus in the mid 1990s, and settled in London for the rest of his life.

Over the past six decades, he received many awards, had numerous international exhibitions and created installations for public spaces in Switzerland, Europe and the UK. He said that his main aim throughout his many-faceted practice was to be “engaged in examining the role of art and its mechanisms in contemporary society”.

For his permanent public art commission on London’s Marchmont Street, Bloomsbury, in 2006, Aldus worked closely with the nearby Foundling Museum. He created ‘Tokens’ inspired by the poignant objects left by mothers at the original Foundling Hospital. These were embedded into the fabric of Marchmont Street as a a trail of cast metal shapes, resonant objects for passersby to encounter, engage with and reflect on the past.