Franz Gertsch. Blow-Up. Retrospective

Swiss artist Franz Gertsch (1930–2022) is regarded as a pioneer of photorealism and a master of modern woodcut. In the second half of the 20th century, he coined a new notion of realism in painting and achieved worldwide fame with his works. The retrospective exhibition at the Deichtorhallen Hamburg provides a comprehensive overview of more than 60 years of his artistic work.

On display will be large-format paintings of the youth and music scenes of the 1970s, iconic portraits of women from the 1980s, epic landscapes and depictions of nature from the last two decades, as well as monumental woodcuts. Gertsch mostly used his own photographs as the basis for his works, which he transferred to the canvas using slide projection. He employed these photographs as studies or “scores” for his photorealistic paintings, which were up to six meters in size.

This retrospective exhibition was realized by the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark, in close collaboration with the artist, who passed away in December 2022, and his family. Significant support was provided by the Franz Gertsch Museum in Burgdorf. The presentation in Hamburg was expanded to include around 20 large-format works from various periods of his artistic career.