Gert & Uwe Tobias

From March 14 to August 28, 2009, the museum franz gertsch is presenting the first Swiss solo exhibition of the Transylvanian artists Gert & Uwe Tobias (born 1973). The artist duo that endows the media of the woodcut with a new timeliness executed more than forty new works for the exhibition in Burgdorf. Large-format woodcuts will be shown alongside typewriter drawings and ceramic sculptures. The exhibition will be accompanied by publication in the form of an artist’s book. Gert & Uwe Tobias have additionally designed the exhibition poster and produced it as a woodcut.

The brothers made their variously shaped printing blocks after a drawn model at a free-standing saw blade with the help of a special saw. The imprints with linocut ink merge on the paper into colorful painterly compositions. The motifs range from figural to floral and graphic representations. In the process, every piece is a joint work: the drawn models, the technical execution in the form of a woodcut, and the final production are produced in a dialogue and critical process between the two brothers. A second fundamental group of works encompass the so-called typewriter drawings. Letters, numbers, and punctuation marks, typed on paper with mechanical typewriters, are arranged next to and on top of each other, producing representations that are just as humorous as they are fascinating.

Gert & Uwe Tobias originally came from Transylvania, Romania, where they spent their first twelve years; the family then migrated to Germany. Their Transylvanian homeland with its customs and folk art has left clear traces in the twin’s works. The Tobias Brothers have become innovators of the woodcut with their combination of a popular, traditional pictorial vocabulary and a contemporary formal language.