1949 Discovery of the Provençal landscape. Encounter with Pablo Picasso in Antibes.
1951–1952 Discovery of the Valais: landscapes and figures. «What is abstraction?» First individual and group exhibitions in Switzerland. First and second stay in Morocco: Man in the landscape. New content and concepts require larger formats.
1953 Spain: strongly rhythmised landscapes. Discovery of the colour 'red'. 'Le Valais', portfolio with 30 multicoloured lithographs on poems by René-Pierre Bille. Swiss Federal Scholarship for Applied Arts.
1954 Encounter with Hermann Hesse and Friedrich Dürrenmatt: portraits (drawings, lithographs and paintings); prize in portrait competition organised by Kunstkredit Basel.
1955 He moved to Oberhofen on Lake Thun and discovered the Niesen that would later epitomise his mountain paintings.
1957 Third stay in Morocco: attempt to combine elements of visible reality with those of free invention. Solo and group exhibitions in Switzerland and Germany (Frankfurt, Hanover, Bremen). Founding of Club 57, an association to support contemporary art.
1958 First visit to Greece. Encounter with Odysseus Elytis.
1958–1967 Under the influence of American 'action painting', gradual transition to a free style of painting with the aim of developing his own sign language, which is committed to both personal rhythm and visible reality and expands into free painterly invention. An attempt to translate landscape impressions into a personal world of drawing and colour. Initially limited to the colours black and white; then transition to monochrome colours. Juxtaposition of stillness and movement; influence of the Tao.
1964–1969 Exhibitions in Germany and abroad (Paris, Brest, Lyon, Bordeaux). First public commissions: Tapestry (Aubusson) for the entrance hall of Thun Town Hall and mosaic for the Kantonalbank Thun. Glass relief 'The Germ of Life' for the Herisau Regional Hospital. He met Tapiès in Paris.
1968 Meeting with Frank Tobey: discussion about the significance of Zen for Western art. First attempts at pictures with interchangeable elements.
1968 Study visit (art and art education) in the USA and Canada. Encounters with American artists of 'action painting' and 'pop art' such as Leslie, Dine, Warhol, Kline, Diebenkorn...
1970 Exhibitions in Switzerland, at the Lisbon Museum and 'A Group of 8 Swiss Artists' in various cities in the United States. Experiments: Pictures and reliefs with interchangeable elements. Improvisations and variations on the theme of the nude: 'Susanna in the Bath' and 'Hommage à René Char', two cycles of 16 and 36 pictures respectively.
1971 Founds Grimisu'art, an association for the promotion of art.
1974 Gallery exhibitions in Switzerland; general exhibition at the Thun Art Museum.
1974–1986 Further picture cycles with interchangeable elements: 'Birth of Venus' (1973–1978); 'Mountain - Man - Painting' (1977–1986); 'Hands' (1981–1986).

«Throughout my life, my imagination has been fuelled by the ordinary: by the landscape, by people, by the things of everyday life. The themes of my drawings and paintings remain the same throughout the years. The mountain is one of them. As a mountain dweller, what fascinates me about mountains is their appearance and their perpetual transformation. But I also see and feel it as a symbol of the human spirit, which is always striving higher and higher and always opening up new horizons. Finally, the mountain is transformed in the world of imagination and inner images into ever new signs in which the invisible, the mysterious, the magical of the mountain seeks expression. Every approach is a possibility, every confrontation conjures up other possibilities and leads to ever new pictorial expression.»

1975 Three objects 'Y' in sheet iron, wood, Plexiglas with neon light; installation at Steffisburg secondary school in collaboration with the sculptor Fritz Gottardi and the architect Peter Schenk.
1985 'Ondinen': Mirror relief, Bernische Kraftwerke Ostermundigen. Portfolio with 4 serigraphs on the theme 'Hand'. Hands' cycle, community centre, Heimberg and Gravelone hospital, Sion.
1985 Co-founder of the Biz'art organisation for the support of contemporary art in Valais.
1986 Retrospective at the Thun Art Museum.
1986–1991 Gallery exhibitions: W. von Gunten, Thun; Carzinaga and Uecker, Basel; «H», Margrit Haldemann, Bern; Esther Münger, Burgdorf; Patrick Roy, Lausanne; Post Scriptum, Belfaux; Toda Bechstein, Burgdorf.
1987 Retrospective at the cantonal art museum in Sion. Basel and Barcelona art fairs.
1988 Mirror relief in the regional hospital in Thun.
1989 Project 'Lux' in the administration building of the Sion power station: installation with coloured mirrors and neon light. Exhibition 'Swiss stained glass'; exhibitions at Galerie 'H', Bern and Galerie Schützenlaube, Visp.
1990 Glass picture in the chapel of the Sainte Claire clinic in Sierre.
1991 GSMBA/VS: Group exhibition at the Prague Cultural Centre.
1988–1993 Cycles on the theme of 'Rest and Movement' and 'An Ištar' in the colours black and blue.
1992-1993 Retrospective (1978–92) at the Helsinki Art Museum (catalogue raisonné).
1994 Retrospective (1978–94) at the Museum Manoir and the Fondation Moret in Martigny (catalogue). Exhibition with the sculptor André Raboud at the Wilfried von Gunten Gallery, Thun/BE.
1995 Installation at the regional hospital in Sion/VS: glass pictures, mirror images, writing and painting.
1995–1997 The focus of the work is the colour RED: investigations, studies and paintings.
1997 Glass picture 'Sign of Love', gift from the artist to the patients of the Sion Regional Hospital. Glass picture 'Sainte Claire d'Assise' in the Clinique Sainte Claire in Sierre/VS. Study visit to Japan. Donations to the cantonal art museum in Sion. Cultural Prize of the State of Valais for 1997.
1998 Exhibition in the framework of 'La Peinture Suisse', Fribourg
1999/2000 Exhibitions at the Galerie Suisse, Strasbourg and the Galerie Esther Münger, Burgdorf.
2003 Exhibition in the gallery 'Alte Öle', Wilfried von Gunten, Thun.
2003 Exhibition at the Fondation Moret, Martigny.
2005 Exhibition at the Congress Centre, Visp.
2007 Exhibition at the Galerie Quai des Arts, Vevey.
2003 Exhibition at the Fondation Moret, Martigny.
2004 Gallery exhibition Gallery Congress Centre, Visp.
2005–2010 Ongoing work on the cycles and collaboration with the glass artist Michel Eltschinger.
2010 Inauguration of the stained glass windows for the Protestant Reformed Church in Lenk.
2011 Retrospective (1998-2011) at the Cloître de St. Ursanne.
2011-2015 Despite the artist's progressive dementia, he maintains his daily routine (working in the studio from early morning until midday and spending the afternoons studying philosophy, art and current affairs) without interruption and is very productive as a painter.