Early Works

In the course of his 2005 retrospective, Franz Gertsch (born 1930) defined 1969 as the start of his artist career. But the artist has increasingly been turning to his early work in recent years, examining sketches and drafts and presenting them to the public in small cabinet exhibitions at the museum franz gertsch. Now it is time to devote a comprehensive exhibition to his early work.

The paintings by the young Gertsch are largely determined by a very personal, romantic and to a certain extent melancholic mood. Relationships between young men and women, landscapes, fairy tales and myths form their thematic foundations. Stylistically, the change from Max von Mühlenen’s school of painting to Hans Schwarzenbach becomes noticeable; Gertsch learned the painting techniques of the Old Masters from the latter artist, arriving at a realistic style featuring a sleeker manner of painting. After a phase of artistic and inner conflict during which he painted in very different styles, Gertsch distanced himself from mythological subject matters and the study of nature in the mid 1960s. Simplified flattish paintings in garish colors led from 1966 to the figural collages in the Pop Art style.

The exhibition was curated by Rainer Michael Mason in collaboration with the artist.