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'Welcome to the Kunstmuseum Bern and to the exhibition Franz Gertsch. Blow-Up. The exhibition’s title refers both to the process of enlargement that characterises Gertsch’s technique and to the famous film from the 1960s. I am delighted to present Franz Gertsch exclusively as a painter – one who began painting in the 1950s, became Europe’s leading representative of Photorealism in the 1960s, and continued to create remarkable works for seven decades, right up until the 2020s.

As Gertsch himself put it, his body of work lies somewhere between truth and reality. That is a question that concerns all of us today. When a photograph presents us with an image, are we really looking at reality? In the 1960s, that was still widely assumed to be the case, and Franz Gertsch countered this with what he saw as the truth of painting.

How do we see it today? Is painting truer than the photographic image? Painting is always a fiction, an invention. As an artist, I can alter whatever I choose. So how did Franz Gertsch approach this? And why is it that his paintings speak to us so powerfully today, presenting plants and people as beings in their own right, as monumental encounters? It is this extraordinary experience that we would like to share with you.'

You just heard Dr Kathleen Bühler, the curator of our exhibition. Throughout this audio guide, she will share what she personally finds so compelling about the work of Franz Gertsch.

The Swiss artist died in 2022 at the age of 92. This exhibition, devoted to his life’s work, is a collaborative project with the Museum Franz Gertsch in Burgdorf, a short distance from Bern. Here in Bern, we present a selection of 37 paintings spanning his career, from his early works to his late paintings. In Burgdorf, you can see his large-scale woodcuts and portraits of women.

Your audio guide will now accompany you as you explore the exhibition. It begins here in the entrance hall with two monumental works by Franz Gertsch that are truly breathtaking.