Deichtorhallen Hamburg:

Franz Gertsch (1930-2022) is one of the most important Swiss artists of the present day and his works in the second half of the 20th century characterised a new concept of realism, which is primarily linked to his working method. He is considered a pioneer of hyperrealism, but also a master of the contemporary woodcut.
This retrospective exhibition has been realised by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, in close collaboration with the artist and his family, who died in December 2022, and with the great support of the Franz Gertsch Museum in Burgdorf. It provides a comprehensive overview of Gertsch's multifaceted and impressive oeuvre and shows important stages and recurring themes based on the selected works. On display are monumental group pictures, portraits, oversized sections of nature and landscapes from more than 60 years of artistic creation. A selection of the artist's large-format woodcuts will accompany and complement the paintings.
After his romantic, painterly beginnings, Franz Gertsch progressed from 1965 via collages in the style of Pop Art to his large-format photorealistic paintings and woodcuts, for which he is internationally recognised today. With the help of photographic templates and by projecting slides onto canvas, which he then realises in paint, he creates large-format, realistic paintings.
In his works, Franz Gertsch works in an unmistakable way and with perfect craftsmanship with close-up and distant effects, abstraction and representationalism, and approaches reality in a very special way, which nevertheless always retains something mysterious. He remained faithful to photography-based painting until the very end. Gertsch also succeeded in realising his photographic models in the field of woodcuts in such a way that they can take their place alongside the paintings.

A co-operation with the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebæk, Denmark. Curator: Kirsten Degel, Curator & Head of Collection Louisiana Museum of Modern Art