Franz Gertsch (1930–2022)

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The group portrait Medici made Gertsch internationally famous almost overnight. The painting was exhibited at documenta 5 in Kassel, one of the world’s foremost exhibitions of contemporary art. The portrait attracted attention not only because of its monumental dimensions – four by six metres – but also because it perfectly captured the spirit of the 1970s.

The exhibition, entitled Questioning Reality – Visual Worlds Today, was curated by Harald Szeemann. First and foremost, it featured leading American Photorealists such as Richard Estes and Chuck Close. Gertsch later recalled:

'Suddenly, I was no longer part of the close-knit circle of local artists in Bern, but among international artists who would later become part of art history. I helped install documenta for the two weeks leading up to the opening. It was a wild time. (…) There was a real sense of new beginnings, and that’s what the exhibition captured.'

The painting depicts five young men standing in front of the entrance to the Kunstmuseum Luzern, which was undergoing renovation at the time. Gertsch had gone there to inspect the galleries in preparation for his first solo exhibition.

'During that visit, the five young men were gathered around Jean-Christophe Ammann. On leaving the museum, they jokingly leaned over the construction fence put up by the building company, called Medici, and urged me to take a group photograph. I pressed the shutter just once.'

'No master draughtsman could have captured the expressions on their five faces in a sixtieth of a second. The camera made it possible.'

The fact that the construction company was called Medici – the same name as the famous Florentine Renaissance dynasty – is a happy coincidence. Both astonishing and fascinating is the contrast between viewing the painting from a distance and seeing it up close. From afar, it looks like a photograph. At close range, it dissolves into abstract areas of colour and visible brushstrokes, revealing the process of painting itself – a hallmark of Gertsch’s large-scale paintings. It also prompts us to ask: what is reality, and what is truth? As Gertsch put it:

'The photographic image claims, "That’s how it was," while the painting tells us, "This is how it is."'