The Window 1
Hybrid-format group show with works by the artists from the gallery program
Window 1
Through The Window viewers from outside of the gallery are able to have a look at works from gallery artists. Center piece in the first window takes a large watercolor by Slawomir Elsner. This truly stunning work from the series Just Watercolors allows the viewers to dive into the work. The color blue is associated with concepts such as longing, spirituality, spiritual development and so on. Although these attributions should be treated with caution, in these strange times a spiritual interpretation may well be appreciated.
To the right of the watercolor hangs a hatched colored pencil drawing depicting a Saint Sebastian after Raphael. The work is also by Slawomir Elsner and is an appropriation of a painting by Raphael in exactly the same format hanging in the Accademia Carrara in Bergamo, Italy. It is a rather fitting image for our times, as the Saint Sebastian is the patron against pandemics. A large new painting with an orange accent stripe by Clare Goodwin called Jane and John and a long Banner / Luc Besson by Franziska Furter revealing instructions how to meet mermaids from the film Le Grand Bleu from 1988 complete the group of works in this window.
Franziska Furter, Luc Besson/Banner, 2020, glass beads, nylon, 90 x 40 x 2 cm (35-1/2 x 15-3/4 x 3/4 in.)
CHF 5’400.--
Quote: YOU GO DOWN TO THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA, WHERE THE WATER ISN'T EVEN BLUE ANYMORE, WHERE THE SKY IS ONLY A MEMORY, AND YOU FLOAT THERE, IN THE SILENCE. AND YOU STAY THERE, AND YOU DECIDE, THAT YOU'LL DIE FOR THEM. ONLY THEN DO THEY START COMING OUT. THEY COME, AND THEY GREET YOU, AND THEY JUDGE THE LOVE YOU HAVE FOR THEM. IF IT'S SINCERE, IF IT'S PURE, THEY'LL BE WITH YOU, AND TAKE YOU AWAY FOREVER.
Jacques Mayol, Le Grand Bleu by Luc Besson
Window 2
This window shows a group of 7 works by 5 artists. On the right hand side one discovers a painting by Swiss painter Pierre Haubensak called YANG (Pochoir) from 2008 in which he plays with ideas of figure-and-ground, an important topic in the history of painting. To its left is an enigmatic work by the American conceptual artist Jamie Isenstein, called Inside Outside Backstage Vase. Pivotal for this work is, that she created the vase herself mimicking vases depicted in still-life by Odilon Redon and that one has to arrange beside the artificial flowers blossoming in different seasons, real flowers. On the left of this still-life is a large crayon drawing by Slawomir Elsner, Venus, Cupid Folly and Time (after Bronzino) an appropriation from an Old Master painting by Agnolo Bronzino hanging in the National Gallery in London.
To its left are three monotypes in handpainted wooden frames by Klodin Erb showing different avatar haircuts. Some of them are referring to well known hair-cuts, for example the one by Marilyn Monroe, others to more general hairdos. To their left hangs a large painting on an unstretched canvas by the French artist Anne-Lise Coste called Au pays parfumé que le soleil caresse. This work was shown in her important exhibition at the Helmhaus Zurich and refers through its colors and the depicted objects to the region where she comes from the South of France.