Blauer Sommer [Detail], 2020
Eitempera auf ungrundierter Baumwolle
Tempera on unprimed cotton
270 x 340 cm
Besitz des Künstlers
Collection of the artist
© Franz Gertsch
Franz Gertsch
The blue space
18.09.2021 – 27.02.2022
Over the past three years, the colour blue, or more precisely, lapis lazuli blue, has regained great importance in Franz Gertsch's work. At the Museum Franz Gertsch, three new paintings will celebrate their world premiere: ‘Blauer Sommer’ [Blue Summer], ‘Gräser IX’ [Grasses] and ‘Blaue Pestwurz’ [Blue Butterbur] will be exhibited for the first time together with ‘Gräser VIII’ (2019/20). Further paintings and woodcuts by Franz Gertsch will be on view in the exhibition alongside the ‘Four Seasons’ group.
Enjoy our virtual tour!
Over the past three years, the colour blue, or more precisely, lapis lazuli blue, has regained great importance in Franz Gertsch's work. At the Museum Franz Gertsch, three new paintings will celebrate their world premiere: ‘Blauer Sommer’ [Blue Summer], ‘Gräser IX’ [Grasses] and ‘Blaue Pestwurz’ [Blue Butterbur] will be exhibited for the first time together with ‘Gräser VIII’ (2019/20). Further paintings and woodcuts by Franz Gertsch will be on view in the exhibition alongside the ‘Four Seasons’ group.
The four monumental paintings in the first exhibition space glow in lapis lazuli blue; three of them were painted in 2020 and 2021 and can be seen in the museum for the first time. Franz Gertsch has completed an entire group of works for his ‘blue room’!
As recently shown at the Museum Franz Gertsch, the artist began a new phase in his work with the late Grasses series ‘Gräser V-VIII’ (2018-20). Gertsch sketched out the outlines of the grasses and used them to compose the painting, for which still he employs a slide projector: he selects, simplifies and shapes. The linear composition, which is also evident in his wide-format ‘Gräser IX’ (2020), gained in significance this moment in his late work.
The artist goes one step further in ‘Blauer Sommer’ (2020): for the first time in decades, the painter emphasises on his own personal painting style. His application of lapis lazuli blue with a soft brush is thicker, more impasto and the brushstrokes are visible as such. The monochrome painting depicts the summer landscape (2008/09) familiar from the ‘Four Seasons’ cycle, which Gertsch had already revisited in woodcuts in 2017 and 2019.
In such variations of his late work as in ‘Blaue Pestwurz’ (2021) the artist devises conceptual and technical innovations based on familiar subjects from his oeuvre up to the present.
The presentation of the artist's late work is rounded off by additional paintings and woodcuts. Large-format portraits of women are also on view again.
The exhibition was curated by Anna Wesle in collaboration with Franz Gertsch.
Over the past three years, the colour blue, or more precisely, lapis lazuli blue, has regained great importance in Franz Gertsch's work. At the Museum Franz Gertsch, three new paintings will celebrate their world premiere: ‘Blauer Sommer’ [Blue Summer], ‘Gräser IX’ [Grasses] and ‘Blaue Pestwurz’ [Blue Butterbur] will be exhibited for the first time together with ‘Gräser VIII’ (2019/20). Further paintings and woodcuts by Franz Gertsch will be on view in the exhibition alongside the ‘Four Seasons’ group.
The four monumental paintings in the first exhibition space glow in lapis lazuli blue; three of them were painted in 2020 and 2021 and can be seen in the museum for the first time. Franz Gertsch has completed an entire group of works for his ‘blue room’!
As recently shown at the Museum Franz Gertsch, the artist began a new phase in his work with the late Grasses series ‘Gräser V-VIII’ (2018-20). Gertsch sketched out the outlines of the grasses and used them to compose the painting, for which still he employs a slide projector: he selects, simplifies and shapes. The linear composition, which is also evident in his wide-format ‘Gräser IX’ (2020), gained in significance this moment in his late work.
The artist goes one step further in ‘Blauer Sommer’ (2020): for the first time in decades, the painter emphasises on his own personal painting style. His application of lapis lazuli blue with a soft brush is thicker, more impasto and the brushstrokes are visible as such. The monochrome painting depicts the summer landscape (2008/09) familiar from the ‘Four Seasons’ cycle, which Gertsch had already revisited in woodcuts in 2017 and 2019.
In such variations of his late work as in ‘Blaue Pestwurz’ (2021) the artist devises conceptual and technical innovations based on familiar subjects from his oeuvre up to the present.
The presentation of the artist's late work is rounded off by additional paintings and woodcuts. Large-format portraits of women are also on view again.
The exhibition was curated by Anna Wesle in collaboration with Franz Gertsch.
Works
