Markus Raetz
Markus Raetz (born 6 June 1941 in Bueren an der Aare ) is a Swiss painter, sculptor and photographer.
Life and work
Raetz grew up in Bueren an der Aare in an art-loving parents. Already as a student he assisted in the holidays with a local artist. He attended from 1957 to 1961, the state teachers' colleges in Münchenbuchsee and Bern, then he taught as a primary school teacher in Brugg in Biel. Since 1963 he is a freelance artist. He lived from 1963 to 1969 in Bern and there had contact with Harald Szeemann, the director of the Kunsthalle Bern and his assistant Jean -Christophe Ammann. 1969 to 1973 he lived and worked in Amsterdam from 1973 to 1976 in Carona in Canton Ticino. In 1970 he married Monika Mueller, the daughter Aimee came in 1972 to the world. In 1977 the family returned to Bern. 1981 to 1982 he lived with a DAAD scholarship in Berlin.
Raetz is one of the most renowned contemporary Swiss artists. Already at the beginning of his artistic work he took in 1968 at the documenta 4 and 1972 at the documenta 5 and was represented in 1969 Harald Szeemanns legendary exhibition When Attitudes Become Form at the Kunsthalle Bern. Raetz employs in his work, which he performs in a wide variety of materials and media, with the phenomena of perception. Not what is represented is with him in the foreground, but the way the reception. He invites the viewer to interact, because many works by the artist reveal themselves only by the movement of the viewer in front of the factory. Raetz 2004 was awarded the Gerhard- old Bourg Prize and in 2006 the Prix Meret Oppenheim.
Exhibitions (selection)
Works in public collections (selection)
- Kunstmuseum Basel / Museum of Contemporary Art
- Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt am Main
- Kunstmuseum Bern
- Kunstmuseum Solothurn
- Abbey Museum Mountain, Mönchengladbach
- Museum of Modern Art ( MoMA ), New York
- Schaulager, Basel
- Art Collection Centre PasquArt Biel