Grasses

With ‘Gräser V’ [Grasses V] (2018/19), which was on view in the Museum Franz Gertsch in 2019/20, another new phase in the artist’s oeuvre began. The art historian Ulrich Loock indeed even spoke of a ‘caesura’. The theme of the new paintings is a familiar one to Gertsch: grasses, or more precisely reed-like false-brome. It can be found as a motif in his paintings since 1995 and in his woodcuts since 1999. What is now new, however, is the manner in which the artist approaches executing his works. While Gertsch modelled his paintings and woodcuts on slide projections since 1969, he has increasingly freed himself from this method since ‘Herbst’ [Autumn] (2007/08). Now with ‘Gräser V’, a further border has been crossed. He now firstly draws the contours of all the grasses, thus laying down the painting’s composition in advance: He selects, simplifies, shapes. This linear composition has gained in significance at this moment in his late work. His technique from recent decades merges to some extent with that of his early work. Franz Gertsch speaks in this regard about a possible ‘catharsis’, but one can also characterise it as a sublimation with the knowledge and maturity of experience.

‘Gräser VI’ [Grasses VI] (2019) depicts blades of grass in delicate tones of blue and green shown against a dark ground. ‘Gräser VII’ [Grasses VII] (2019), by contrast, surprises the viewer with its stronger use of colour: We see greenish blue blades of grass against a luminous red background. The artist goes a step further with abstraction in this work, perhaps even giving a nod to his teacher Max von Mühlenen, who propagated red-blue painting.

The third of the new grass paintings exhibited here, ‘Gräser VIII’ [Grasses VIII] (2019/20), appears almost completely spiritualised. Gertsch has again turned to the colour blue in his grass pictures, the pigment lapis lazuli that has likewise accompanied him for many years. In 1995, for example, he painted an abstract picture on Japanese paper with pure lapis lazuli (‘Lapis Lazuli: 8.III.1995’, 1995, dammar painting on Kumohadamashi Japanese paper made by Heizaburo Iwano, 276 x 382 cm, Hess Collection). This unique work in Franz Gertsch’s oeuvre pays homage to the pigment and the hand-made paper. For ‘Gräser VIII’, he makes use of the most precious of the available variations, namely the Fra Angelico blue manufactured in accordance with old recipes. The painting was executed like the frescos from the time of this Early Renaissance Italian painter. Pure lapis lazuli is massaged into the canvas with a bristle brush, giving rise to an almost otherworldly luminous effect.

A number of variations of the grasses theme can be seen in the other exhibition spaces as well. This presentation focusing on the artist’s more recent work is rounded off by additional paintings and woodcuts.

The exhibition was curated by Anna Wesle in collaboration with Franz Gertsch.