With Andy Warhol and the German painter princes, Schröder stages a “revolution” of size in the second part of the Albertina saga on the history of printmaking.
Millions of tiny dots seem to be pattering down on a black surface – like a summer rain shower on a dark pond: Franz Gertsch has fixed his “black water” for eternity in an epic, six meter long width and two and a half meter height. How many months did the Swiss photorealist sit on this triptych in the early 1990s? And how many assistants? It meant transferring this snapshot of Gertsch, which didn’t even last a second, with the fluting onto a colored wooden panel – in pointillist style.
Printed on thick Japanese paper, this masterpiece of contemporary graphic art now hangs solemnly in the Albertina Modern, in the most meditative, clearest room of this new exhibition, which is truly not stingy with strong impressions. Due to its quietness, this hall also makes it easy to think regarding the grand narrative that the Albertina is daring to present here at both locations: a few weeks ago, it started in the main building, where you can trace the history of printmaking from the Middle Ages. From the big names we learn how the images “learned to walk” when they became mobile through the methods of reproduction on paper. It was television back then. Until television (or photography) was invented.
