Franz Gertsch - Rüschegg

Angelika Affentragner-Kirchrath, Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath

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...