Finding a new picture

The victory parade of the brothers Gert and Uwe Tobias progresses in congenial fashion with this new book which has been geared more squarely towards the requirements of an artist’s edition.
After the first large presentation of their woodcuts in Germany and the USA, the twins have accepted invitations to hold exhibitions in Switzerland and Austria for the first time. Anita Shah has staged a comprehensive show in the Franz Gertsch Museum Burgdorf of the most recent woodcuts, drawings and ceramics; Gert and Uwe have been commissioned by Gerald Matt to devise a show which is to occupy an entire exhibition container situated opposite the Secession in Vienna for the Kunsthalle Wien. Understandably, both exhibitions have created quite a stir in the capital.
Conceived by the brothers as an accompaniment to these exhibitions, the book compiles all the most recent works and plays with collage as a stylistic medium in both simple and impressive manner. The works appear at first in toto only then to reappear subsequently in sections, engendering thus a constant to-ing and fro-ing  of motif and stylistic means.  Time and time again it becomes sublimely apparent how the most diverse stylistic elements are deployed and coalesce to form a new picture: embroidery pattern, portrait, pictogram, panel painting, experimentation, bust, collage, history painting.
This book not only demonstrates the astonishing bandwidth of their artistry, but also bears witness to the continual stylistic refinement in the work of this unusual and remarkable pair of brothers.

Exhibition:
Franz Gertsch Museum, Burgdorf/Schweiz, 14/03–28/08/09
Kunsthalle Wien, 07/04–05/07/09