Swiss artist Franz Gertsch at the exhibition 'Gertsch - Gauguin - Munch' at the Museo d'Arte della Svizzera italiana MASI in Lugano in 2019.
Keystone/ti-press/alessandro Crinari
Franz Gertsch, one of Switzerland’s most influential artists and master of the hyper-realistic style, has died at the age of 92.
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Morre Franz Gertsch, o artista do “hiper-realismo”
Gertsch was born in 1930 in the village of Mörigen on Lake Biel in northwest Switzerland and later studied at the Max von Mühlenen painting school in Bern.
During the late 1960s, Gertsch began painting his large format hyper-realistic portraits, which resemble high-resolution photographs, depicting people in everyday, unspectacular scenes.
Among his works of this period were large format pictures of US rock singer Patti Smith.
The painter and graphic artist celebrated his international breakthrough when his work was shown at the art exhibition ‘documenta 5’ in Kassel, Germany, in 1972.
Between 1986 to 1995 Gerstch took a break from painting in favor of large-format woodcuts covered with sheets of paper to produce portrait images.
His works are held in the collections of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Kunstmuseum Lucerne in Switzerland, and the Museum Franz Gertsch, which was built in the town of Burgdorf, Switzerland, in honor of his career.
In 2017, Gertsch’s Luciano II painting sold for CHF3.4 million ($3.7 million) in London – a record sum for the artist.
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Franz Gertsch
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Franz Gertsch, born March 8, 1930, in a village on Lake Biel/Bienne, is numbered among the most significant contemporary artists in Switzerland. During the late 1960s, Gertsch began painting his large format hyperrealistic portraits, which resemble high-resolution photographs. He celebrated his international breakthrough when his work was shown at the art exhibition; documenta 5 in…
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Swiss artist Franz Gertsch's Luciano II painting has sold for CHF3.4 million ($3.4 million) in London – a record sum for the artist.
This content was published on
Coinciding with the completion of the “Four Seasons Cycle”, the retrospective of works by Franz Gertsch shows how he gained international renown for his hyper-realist paintings and unique woodcuts. Gertsch, born in 1930, is one of Switzerland’s leading contemporary artists.
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