Expressive meaningful faces, in which the depicted person’s feelings and essence can be read, characterise the works of the illustrator, comics artist and painter Andreas Gefe, who was born in 1966 in Küssnacht, a town in the canton of Schwyz, and now lives and works in Zurich. His unconventional, personal and internationally renowned oeuvre ranges from careful drawings to corporeal paintings that are rich in colour and full of nuances. The powerful and intense images that Gefe has created as an illustrator for “Das Magazin”, “Beobachter”, “NZZ Folio” and “SonntagsZeitung”, with social and political themes, are known to a wider audience. Alongside this, in collaboration with authors like Martin Suter, Charles Lewinsky, Jerome Charyn and José-Luis Bocquet, he has published multifaceted comics that have met with a huge response. As an independent painter, Gefe portrays his generation of urban individualists in a simultaneously affectionate and critical manner, encapsulating whole narratives in dense, atmospheric and usually unfathomable acrylic paintings. His distinctive work has brought him numerous awards, grants and exhibitions. The comprehensive show at Cartoonmuseum Basel is a portrait of Andreas Gefe, a narrative artist who has a defining influence on the young Swiss artists’ scene.
Opening: Friday march 23th, 2018, 6.30 pm

Curator: Anette Gehrig