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 woodcuts and later for monumental
'portraits' of such pieces of nature. Thus, Rüschegg also stands for
Gertsch's movement away from the representation of humans to that of
nature, just as it links his later work with the landscape studies of
his early years.


Text in English and German.