Vera. 1994.
Woodcut in colors in orange (vermilion, flower color (yellow from Kyoto), pine needle charcoal).
Signed and numbered on the reverse. From an edition of 24 hand-printed copies. On Kumohadamashi Japan paper by Heizaburo Iwano. 105 x 91 cm (41.3 x 35.8 in). Sheet: 125 x 107 cm (49,2 x 42,1 in).

Printed by Franz Gertsch, Nik Hausmann, Maria Gertsch, and Jürg Kretz. Published by Franz Gertsch. Each print is unique in color. The printing plate is in the estate of Franz Gertsch. [AW].

• Large-format woodcut in unique colors with a one-of-a-kind character.
• The highest art of printing on valuable Kumohadamashi Japan paper.
• Until November 2024, the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk honored the artist, who died in 2022, with a comprehensive retrospective.
• Franz Gertsch's portraits are among the artist's most sought-after woodcuts on the international auction market (source: artprice.com).

We are grateful to the Gertsch family, Bern, for the kind support in cataloging this lot.

PROVENANCE: Private collection, Berlin.

LITERATURE: Andrea Firmenich, Johannes Janssen (eds.), Franz Gertsch. Holzschnitte. Aus der Natur gerissen, mit einem Register der Druckgraphik 1972-2008 as a provisional catalogue raisonné by Rainer Michael Mason, Cologne 2013, CR no. 19 B (illustrated in b/w on p. 122, different copy).
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Götz Adriani (ed.), Franz Gertsch. Geheimnis Natur, Ostfildern 2013, p. 11 (different copy).
Rainer Michael Mason, Franz Gertsch. Visages paysages, Vevey 2017, p. 27 (different copy).
Anna Wesle (ed.), Louisiana visits Franz Gertsch: post-war and contemporary art in dialog, Berlin 2024, p. 105 (different copy).
Franz Gertsch, Gedankengänge durch Vorstellung und Natur, in: Andrea Firmenich, Franz Gertsch. Holzschnitte. Aus der Natur gerissen, Cologne 2013, pp. 19-23, here p. 21.