Franz Gertsch – Winter (2015-2016)

Louisiana poster with the work Winter (2015-2016) , by the Swiss super-realist Franz Gertsch. Gertsch shaped a new, special concept of realism in the second half of the 20th century and gained international fame for his photorealistic paintings and woodcuts.

This summer's (June 2024) major Louisiana exhibition is the first comprehensive presentation in Scandinavia of Franz Gertsch (1930-2022). Gertsch came to realism in the late 1960s, and he used photographic models and projections before transforming the motifs into paintings using a special method and thanks to perfect craftsmanship.

From the mid-1980s, Franz Gertsch began transforming his photographic originals into woodcuts. They are the result of meticulous and time-consuming craftsmanship involving different types of wood, high-quality color pigments, and handmade Japanese paper.

A selection of these gigantic woodcuts is shown in the exhibition side by side with the paintings, ranging from the large formats from the 1970s, which gave Gertsch an international breakthrough at Documenta in 1972, to the late, oversized nature sections and landscapes.