Woodcuts by Franz Gertsch

Parallel to the current temporary exhibitions, a new woodcut by Franz
Gertsch (b. 1930) will have its premiere in Room 3. Based on a 1971 photograph,
he produced a woodcut in 2013 that will be shown in different
colors and varies a motif familiar from his paintings. Two gypsy girls are
depicted on a beach in the South of France in this work that takes up
the theme of the paintings “Saintes Maries de la Mer I – III” (1971 – 72).

Room 4 is being devoted to Franz Gertsch’s most monumental woodcut.
Four different versions of “Large Grass” (1999 / 2001), a three-part,
over eight-meter wide woodcut will be exhibited. In terms of motif, the
works continue on Gertsch’s paintings “Grasses I” (1995/96) and “Grasses
II” (1996 / 97), and its triptych format reveals a contentual link to the
“Schwarzwasser Triptych” (1991/92). Just as the ring-shaped motions
of the water spread out from one part to the others, “Large Grass” can
also be read across the individual prints. In the case of the latter, however,
the middle section very clearly lays claim to the most significance,
thus corresponding to the origins of the triptych as a three-part retable
with a middle section and side wings. The piece’s three - fold nature and
simple monumentality creates an aura of the sublime and sacred that is
further heightened by the work’s quadruplication in different hues of color.
An exhibition space comes about that has been turned into an oasis
of meditative calm in our hectic times, inviting the viewer to pause.

A video documentation by Maria Gertsch-Meer, who accompanied her husband during the production of the triptych "Das grosse Gras" from the making of the paper to the completed print, can be seen on request in the museum’s foyer.