Franz Gertsch (1930–2022)

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For his Pop Art works, Gertsch drew not only on images from music magazines and record sleeves, but also on private photographs. One such photograph of his wife Maria served as the basis for this series of couples. The casually seated figure behind the reclining woman in Paar C 1 (Couple C 1) is, with slight modifications, based on the figure of Mick Jagger in the Rolling Stones series displayed opposite. Yet there is no longer anything personal about these portraits. They have become archetypes, embodying the youth culture of the time. Appropriately, these works bear only generic titles such as Paar, meaning 'couple'.

Gertsch worked with the three primary colours – red, yellow and blue – from which all other colours can be mixed, together with black and white. In some of his works, he even used fluorescent pigments, giving the colours an extraordinary brilliance. Over the course of three years, he systematically varied forms and colours again and again, reducing them to their simplest possible expression. After some time, he reached a dead end and found himself in an artistic crisis.

'Eventually, I had to admit to myself that this kind of work didn’t allow me to make full use of my abilities as a painter. I began to ask myself: is this really what you should, and can be doing? Is it what you’re capable of? So I stopped and spent six months thinking it over.'

You’ll discover what happened next – and how Gertsch went on to develop his Photorealist style – at the next stop. To continue, make your way to the opposite side of the entrance hall.