BEITRAGSFONDS STADT ZÜRICH · CASSINELLI-VOGEL-STIFTUNG · DR. JÖRG FURRER · WALTER HAEFNER STIFTUNG · GOTTFRIED UND URSULA SCHÄPPI-JECKLIN STIFTUNG · HANS F. TELLENBACH STIFTUNG · WALI DAD STIFTUNG · ELISABETH WEBER STIFTUNG
Shaul Knaz’s works are hidden pictures full of life, full of connections, entanglements and contradictions. Focusing on human existence, everything revolves around man and woman, how they attract each other, only to be torn apart again by an invisible force. Opposite the artist from the Kibbutz are the plaster sculptures and elaborate carving pictures by Margrit Schlumpf-Portmann from Zurich. Her works, however, do not form a counterpoint, but almost merge with the Israeli’s paintings. The similarities in style and composition are unmistakable – and this despite the fact that Schlumpf-Portmann’s position, in contrast to Knaz’s more traditional one, is clearly feminist, she deals critically with the relationship between the sexes and questions power structures. What does this say about art and the artist, and what does it do to us as viewers?
As a third position, we show the geometric-ornamental paintings of Gertrud Frey. In the large-scale works of the Zurich artist, too, the human being is often in the foreground, becoming one with his surroundings; but unlike the exuberant, ambivalent works of Knaz and Schlumpf-Portmann, Frey’s stringent compositions speak of a longing for harmony and perfection.
Sinai Mutzner’s works are the opposite of a perfect world. With her audio installation “24/7”, the 25-year-old brings us into the here and now. The vibrations of the words and the images that arise in our heads become a link between the past and the present – and make the interplay between the four artists all the more exciting and topical.