Franz Gertsch - Rüschegg - Schlüsselwerke der Schweizer Kunst

Swiss artist Franz Gertsch, born 1930, is one of the most important exponents of photorealism worldwide. Yet unlike many of his fellow artists, he takes liberties when translating a photograph into one of his large-format paintings or prints, thus animating his depictions of human faces or landscapes.
Rüschegg, created in 1988, represents a landmark in Gertsch's oeuvre. It is both his first attempt in woodcut for a landscape, and his first large-format work in that genre. Abandoning painting for nearly a decade as of 1986, he developed a special woodcut technique. Having worked in portraiture almost exclusively for many years, Gertsch now begins his exploration of nature.
Starting from a view of his garden in the Swiss village of Rüschegg, Gertsch singles out some of its elements, such as a footpath, rocks, shrubs and trees, grass and leaves, taking them as individual motifs first for woodcuts and later for monumental "portraits" of such pieces of nature. Thus, Rüschegg also stands for Gertsch's movement away from the representation of humans to that of nature, just as it links his later work with the landscape studies of his early years.

About the author

Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath lebt und arbeitet in Zürich als freie Autorin, Kunstpublizistin und Kuratorin. Sie ist die Verfasserin der Werkmonografie «Franz Gertsch – Die Magie des Realen», die 2004 im Benteli Verlag erschienen ist, und Kuratorin der Franz-Gertsch-Ausstellungen in Burgdorf und Linz im Frühjahr und Herbst 2020.

Summary

Rüschegg
: Turning-point in choice of motif and medium in the oeuvre of this master of photorealism

Product details

• Authors: Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath
• Assisted by: Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath (Editor), Joel Scott (Editor), Joel Scott (Translation)
• Publisher: Scheidegger & Spiess
• Languages: German, English
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 20.03.2020
• EAN: 9783858816634
• ISBN: 978-3-85881-663-4
• No. of pages: 96
• Dimensions: 219 mm x 255 mm x 15 mm
• Weight: 622 g
• Illustrations: 45 farbige und 3 s/w-Abbildungen
• Series: Schlüsselwerke der Schweizer Kunst
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Plastic arts; Kunst, Zeichnung, Swissness, Holzschnitt, Hyperrealismus, Druck, einzelne Künstler, Künstlermonografien, Malerei und Gemälde, bildende Kunst, zeitgenössiche Kunst, Fotorealismus, Franz Gertsch, Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath, auseinandersetzen, Zeichnen und Zeichnungen, Drucke und Druckgrafik