Franz Gertsch

Franz Gertsch’s hyperrealist paintings and prints rival the gravitas of Chuck Close’s early portraits or Andy Warhol’s polaroids, targeting the objective reality of the camera and mutating his subjects with the texture of his own mediums. After studying with Hans Schwarzenbach between 1950 and 1952, Gertsch followed the painting tradition of the Renaissance by working with tempera paint in meticulous detail. The artist’s works originate from his own photographs and slide projections, channeling the snapshot aesthetic with stunning clarity and a creative agency unable to be realized by way of his camera. He transitioned into large-scale woodcuts in 1986, using Japan paper to render natural motifs, then portraits. He returned to his original painting style in 1994 as a testament to the ways in which his imagination and diversion from the photograph amplifies the resonance of his subjects, be it Patti Smith or a drag queen.

The artist’s work has been exhibited at Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland, Kunsthaus Zurich, Switzerland, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany, Albertina, Vienna, Museum Frieder Burda, Baden Baden, Museum of Contemporary Art, Turin, MUMOK, Vienna, MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, and the Museum of Modern Art, New York, among other venues.Gerstch participated in dOCUMENTA X in 1972, the Venice Biennale in 1978 and 2003, and the Gwangju Biennale in 2010. He opened his own museum in 2002 called the Museum Franz Gertsch in Burgdorf, Switzerland.