Markus Raetz is dead: refined works of art that captivate the eye – culture

From teacher to great artist

Markus Raetz was born on June 6, 1941. He grew up in Büren an der Aare. Initially he became a primary school teacher at Brügg, near Biel. In 1963 he moved to Bern and worked as a freelance artist.

He was part of the Bern art scene around the exhibition organizer Harald Szeemann, who was then director of Kunsthalle Bern. Markus Raetz participated in Szeemann’s exhibition “When attitudes become form”, which caused an international sensation in 1969.

It was seen at numerous other major exhibitions. He was invited to the “documenta” in Kassel three times. Success remained true to him.

Markus Raetz’s works can now be found in international collections. In Switzerland, his art is particularly well represented in the Bern and Basel art museums.

Opposites merge in a change of perspective

Markus Raetz’s work followed a broad line from the beginning: questioning the media’s perception of irony. His work has always been ambiguous: full of wit, but also full of philosophical depth.

This is particularly evident in his puzzle: typefaces and objects that can be read and interpreted differently depending on the perspective from which you look.

The best known is undoubtedly the “OUI”, which from another perspective becomes the “NO”. Or the “TOUT”, the whole, from which, seen in another way, it becomes a “RIEN”, a nothing.

In Raetz, everything has its counterpart. Apparently, the opposite is not mutually exclusive, but becomes one.

Raetz played not only with words, but also with images. With “Hasenspiegel”, the silhouette of a man in a hat in a mirror is transformed into the outline of a rabbit.

Raetz was happy to work with mirrors and other optical instruments to track the perception and worldview derived from it. In his works, he shows that there is another form in one form and this results in a surprising new statement.

An eye for the subtleties of machining

Raetz was a great reader. Someone who has studied language and literature in depth. You can see that in his work.

Everything is very well thought out, very substantial in the statement. But at the level of design and material, it seems very simple and modest.

Your image puzzle is often made of wire, very simple, but extremely well and carefully worked. Markus Raetz has always shown to be attentive to the small details in the technical implementation of his works.

In their simplicity and modesty, their works are so deep, sophisticated, and full of wit that you feel like dealing intensively with them.