Franz Gertsch: Polyfocal Allover
Polyfocal Allover is the first institutional painting survey of Swiss artist Franz Gertsch (b. 1930, Mörigen) in the United States.
By Swiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
Byline or curated by...
At Luciano's House (1973) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
The exhibition explores Gertsch’s decades-long commitment to capturing life in portraiture, primarily through photorealist paintings and woodcut prints.
Installation view by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
For the first time in decades, several major works from the artist’s monumental series of ‘situation portraits’ from the 1970s will be reunited, including At Luciano’s House (1973), Luciano I (1976), Luciano II (1976), and Portrait of Urs Luthi (1970).
At Luciano's House (1973) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
Based on photographs Gertsch took of a group of young friends who had begun living in a commune in Lucerne after 1968, including celebrated artists Luciano Castelli and Urs Luthi, the paintings capture the subjects’ lively presence as social beings in formation.
At Luciano's House (1973) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
The extraordinarily rendered details illuminated by the stark light of a camera flash capture an interest in American counterculture, as well as a playfulness with codes of sexuality and gender.
At Luciano's House (1973) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
1969 was a turning point in the artist’s work. Having struggled with what he saw as the demands of Modernism to create new inventive forms, Gertsch realized that he could find freedom in attempting to paint as though he were an “instrument,” like a camera.
Installation view by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
This painting is based on a photograph that Gertsch took on a trip to Kranenburg, Germany, with a group of his artist friends. He began working with photographic slides and projecting the image onto canvas, painting over the projection.
Portrait of Urs Lüthi (1970) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
Portrait of Urs Lüthi was one of his early attempts at this technique and feature a variety of brushstroke types.
Portrait of Urs Lüthi (1970) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
Working in darkness, the artist had to hold the color of the paint in his memory, which created a feeling of “painting blind, seismographically.”
Portrait of Urs Lüthi (1970) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
Spiegel (1961) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
The earliest works by Gertsch in the exhibition display experimentation with portraiture and then translation of images via different processes and styles.
Installation view by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
During a searching period in Gertsch’s life he made works and studies based on a fairytale called Tristan Bärmann, which he eventually published in 1962. Tristan Bärmann is a man transformed into a bear by a curse, and who regains his human form with the help of a magic mirror.
While stylistically different, the motif of a figure regarding themselves in a mirror would reappear in Gertsch’s later photorealist works of Luciano Castelli and friends, who he photographed as they stood in front of mirrors attempting to adjust their appearances.
Installation view by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
Installation view by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
The exhibition will also feature a suite of Gertsch’s large woodcut prints, a medium which the artist devoted himself to exclusively between 1986 and 1995.
Between 1986 and 1995, Gertsch paused his painting practice and devoted himself to large, photorealistic woodcut prints, speaking of a desire to create a "monochrome, realistic picture".
Several prints from the series Natascha IV (1988) are based on the same image of a young woman, with a glacial, yet luminous expression.
Schwarzwasser (1991) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
The portraits are often paired with closeup details of images taken from nature, so that faces and landscapes
become analogous. The Natascha IV series are accompanied by Schwarzwasser (1991), a study of subtle movement on the surface of a body of water.
Luciano II (1976) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
Luciano II depicts Luciano Castelli, a young artist based in Lucerne. Gertsch visited Lucerne in 1970 to prepare for his 1972 solo exhibition at Kunstmuseum and was impressed by 17 year-old Castelli’s playfulness with codes of identity and gender in both his artwork and life.
Luciano II (1976) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
He is painted wearing traces of eyeliner and lipstick, possibly remnants from the previous night.
Installation view by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
In this painting of artist Luciano Castelli, Gertsch again uses the light of the flash to equalize the subject matter, picking out the remnants of dinner, wine, cigarettes and broken glasses with the same attention to detail as to the subject’s face.
Luciano I (1976) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
St. Guilhem (1974) by Franz GertschSwiss Institute / Contemporary Art New York
