Works by Franz Gertsch

Parallel to Valérie Favre’s exhibition, paintings and woodcuts by Franz Gertsch will be on show in Room 1 and 2. Each of the spaces will be dominated by one of the paintings from the Seasons series and accompanied by further works. As a consequence, not all of the four paintings making up the Seasons cycle, produced by Gertsch between 2007 and 2011 and a highlight of his late work, will be on view.

The first exhibition space is pervaded by a delicate, fresh undertone, the portraits “Johanna I” (1983/84) and “Silvia I” (1998) as well as the landscape “Gräser I” [Grasses I] (1995/96) are combined with “Frühling” [Spring] (2009–11). It is exciting to compare the paintings here that span nearly thirty years. Not only in technical terms but also with a view to the question as to how Gertsch’s treatment of landscape differs from that of the figures, we ask whether his portraits are not in fact “facial landscapes”?

The second exhibition space is devoted entirely to landscapes: “Winter” (2009) is joined by three woodcuts addressing the theme of water, “Triptychon Schwarzwasser” [Schwarzwasser Triptych] (1991/92), “Schwarzwasser II” (1993/94) and “Diptychon Schwarzwasser” [Schwarzwasser Diptych] (1995). These prints occupy themselves with the Schwarzwasser River near Franz Gertsch’s home and workplace at Rüschegg and reference in an almost meditative manner  a basic theme of Gertsch’s late work, namely the occupation with the passage of time.