Rüschegg Earth

For the first time, the Museum Franz Gertsch is showing the last two works the artist Franz Gertsch completed before his death in 2022. “Cima del Mar” and “Schwarzwasser” are on display together with earlier paintings and woodcuts. Franz Gertsch painted the five large-format pictures of his blue phase (2019–21) with genuine ultramarine pigment which is made from semiprecious lapis lazuli quarried in Afghanistan. For this late work the artist dipped motifs he had been depicting for decades, such as grasses, butterbur, and forest landscapes, into one colour, blue, thereby allowing himself to become completely immersed in an intense, ultramarine-blue phase. In the process he continued to critically examine and refine his work.

Franz Gertsch created “Meer II (Sea II)” (2021/22) shortly after the paintings of the blue phase, once again with genuine ultramarine. However, he also worked with blue and grey watercolour pencils and used the warm white of the unprimed cotton as a stylistic element.

Now two paintings the artist produced subsequently are to have their world premiere at the Museum Franz Gertsch: “Cima del Mar” and “Schwarzwasser” (both from 2022). These last two completed works represent the first translation of motifs known from his woodcuts into paintings. The shade of brown he used in both compositions is derived from a pigment made especially for the artist from earth sampled in Rüschegg, where he lived and worked.

Other paintings and woodcuts by Franz Gertsch are also on display, mainly from the field of landscapes such as several “Schwarzwasser woodcuts (1991–95), the seasons paintings (2007–11), and “Pestwurz (Butterbur)” (2015).

The exhibition was curated by Anna Wesle.

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