VIENNA, AUSTRIA.- The Albertina presents Franz Gertsch. Portraits of Nature. Woodcuts and Paintings 1986-2006, on view through January 7, 2007. The Albertina and MUMOK are devoting a comprehensive exhibition to the work of Franz Gertsch (born 1930), one of the most important artists of Photorealism of the present. While MUMOK is presenting the painted oeuvre from 1951 to 1984, the Albertina has compiled a show entitled »PORTRAITS OF NATURE«, displaying some thirty large-scale works, including almost all of the woodcuts as well as the complete production of paintings, dating from 1986 to 2006. The show is being staged in cooperation with the Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf and the Museum Kurhaus Kleve; further loans have been made available by the artists Franz and Maria Gertsch and others. Two of the most striking woodcuts, »Rüschegg« and »Triptych Schwarzwasser«, entered the collections of the Albertina in the past two years – the one as a permanent loan from the Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, the other as a generous gift from the artist, presented to the Albertina’s director for his 50th birthday. A further private donation is about to be made and will be on view in Vienna for the first time within the framework of this exhibition: »The Large Forest Path«.

The Late Years: 1986 – 2006 - The Medium of Woodcut, 1986 - In 1986, Gertsch temporarily gave up painting in order to deal more extensively with woodcuts, aiming to achieve a new approach towards reality. Beforehand, he had reached the highest degree of perfection and realistic rendering in his painting. Thus he no longer wanted to reproduce a photograph in the picture faithfully, but by means of the woodcut was seeking to realise his inner idea of nature without having to give up the pictorial model entirely.

A New Technique, Blown-Up Details, Monumental Formats - Gertsch developed a new technique by which the image is achieved through countless punctual shapes carved into the woodblock. These recesses appear on the impression as white dots, whereas only the printing surfaces take on the colour. Through the resolution of the image into an infinite number of blank and coloured dots, objects lose their weight and corporeal substance. As the white colour of the paper shines through everywhere, things also appear to be interlaced with light.

Although each and every detail is rendered true to life, a certain degree of alienation from the photographic model becomes noticeable, which is further enhanced by the monochromy of the prints. In addition, the depicted objects frequently take on huge dimensions, and the artist reduces natural motifs to details that do not allow for a precise localisation. Gertsch attempts to define what is characteristic about a motif – its essence – without confining it to a concrete place or a specific time context. A peaceful and poetic tranquillity emanates from his landscapes that encourages one to contemplate and dream, producing an almost mystic atmosphere.

Two Subjects: Natural Motifs and Portraits - The models derive from the artist’s immediate surroundings: in the garden of his house in Rüschegg grow pestilence weed and forest bromegrass, and the Schwarzwasser River flows past close by. Also the female models for his portraits are locals whom Gertsch usually met through family members.

The Paintings After 1995 - Dealing with the medium of woodcut in turn produced an important impulse for painting, which Gertsch took up again in 1995. Also here, the subject matter is exclusively limited to natural motifs and portraits. In the four successive versions of »Grasses« he chose a detail from a larger whole, avoiding any hint as to the motif’s concrete location, just as he had done in his woodcuts. Also the palette of these pictures, reduced to green, blue, and yellow tones, approximates the monochrome effect of the woodcuts. Eventually, a detail from »Grasses I« served as a model for the triptych »The Large Grass«, in which the artist, just as with the four painted versions of »Grasses«, did not concentrate on a photographically faithful rendering of the plant, but rather on capturing its varied curved movements and overlaps.

Novelties may also be observed in the painted portraits, which likewise go back to his preoccupation with this genre in the medium of woodcut. In the female portraits of the early 1980s the women are captured during a fleeting moment and take on an appealing pose. In contrast, »Silvia«, in the three versions painted between 1998 and 2004, confronts the spectator much more self-confidently. As in the woodcuts, the background no longer provides a boundary or a back wall, but forms a space surrounding the sitter and of which she herself becomes a part. The tone of the background is now also delicately alluded to in the sitter’s complexion and dress. The bright and contrasting colours and brilliant light effects of the artist’s earlier paintings are now replaced by more subdued hues blending into one another, so that they resemble the effect of the woodcut portraits. »Silvia« appears resolute, but at the same time contemplative. She claims to occupy her own sphere, which the artist underscored through the clear, unified form and the contrast between her silhouette and the background.

The Image and Nature of Man - In the three versions of the »Silvia« portraits, the artist has realised his personal ideas about human nature more pronouncedly than ever before. Moreover, he made an effort to express different character traits. The thoughtful, somewhat timid and deeply sympathising woman of »Silvia I« is opposed by the more distanced and flippant young counterpart in the second version. »Silvia III«, however, seems to be serious and depressive, suggesting a presentiment of death. This is, after all, also underlined by the black background and by the shadow that brushes the right half of her face like a ghostly hand pulling the girl away into the darkness. The woodcut of »Silvia«, on the other hand, combines aspects of the first two painted versions, thus adding a further character trait. In the Albertina’s exhibition, the close relationship between the woodcuts and the paintings is made manifest, as they enter into an exciting dialogue.