Franz Gertsch.
Blow-Up

Franz Gertsch (1930-2022) is seen as a Swiss pioneer of photorealism and a master of the modern woodcut. The retrospective Franz Gertsch. Blow-Up, shown in two parts in the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Museum Franz Gertsch, offers an overview of an artistic career lasting more than sixty years, including monumental paintings of the youth and music scene from the 1970s, iconic portraits of women from the 1980s, family paintings and portraits of artist friends, epic landscapes and images of nature.

In the Kunstmuseum Bern the focus is on the years between 1956 and 2021, creating familiar insights, but also illuminating new aspects and perspectives for the reception of Gertsch’s works. The exhibition shows Gertsch’s stylistic development, and goes on to reveal the thematic lines and cross-connections within his œuvre. These include the relationship between humanity and nature, as well as the role of photography in painting, which are today acquiring a new significance in the context of ecological and humanitarian crises and in the age of the selfie. 

Curator: Dr. Kathleen Bühler
Assistant curator: Nina Liechti

Exhibition in the Museum Franz Gertsch 

19.9.2026–28.2.2027
The Franz Gertsch Museum concentrates on selected paintings and themes from the years between 1970 and 2022, with a particular focus on the models Patti Smith, Luciano Castelli and Irene Straub. Gertsch made a total of five portraits of the rock poet Patti Smith, and thirteen of Luciano Castelli between 1971 and 1977. Irene Staub was part of Luciano Castelli’s circle, and was known as a high-class prostitute in Zurich under the name of ‘Lady Shiva’. Other works in the exhibition include large-format paintings of the models Johanna (1983–1985) and Silvia (1988–2004), as well as the important landscape subjects of the forest path (Campiglia Marittima), grasses and the sea as well as selected woodcuts. 

An exhibition of Kunstmuseum Bern and Museum Franz Gertsch in cooperation with Louisiana Museum of Modern Art Humlebæk and Deichtorhallen Hamburg.