Markus Raetz (*1941 in Buren an der Aare) is one of the best-known Swiss artists of his generation. Besides an immense number of drawings, his oeuvre includes three-dimensional works. Although Raetz spends long periods of time minutely planning his sculptures, installations, and kinetic objects, his drawings are spontaneous and executed quickly, one after the other. For him, drawing means thinking with a pencil in his hand-at least that is one way to describe his work with brushes, finger paints, and pencil on paper. It is not the subject that is of main concern to him but the process of visual perception. This is the first publication to present a selection of works from the over fifteen thousand drawings in the artist's studio, providing a look at his sketchbooks, which are filled to bursting, as well as an animated cartoon and thus manifesting the extraordinary variety of techniques and motifs of Raetz's graphic oeuvre. (German edition ISBN 978-3-7757-3384-7) Exhibition schedule: Kunstmuseum Basel, October 20, 2012-February 17, 2013

Text by: Anita Haldemann, Toni Hildebrandt, Stephan Kunz, Didier Semin