The paintings by Gilles Rotzetter (*1978) are figurative, direct, rough, forceful. One thing they are not is beautiful. In the tradition of Bad Painting, the artist cultivates a shrill to gloomy palette and uses strong contrasts. He paints horror, fears and concrete political themes, like colonialism, prostitution, war and violence, in pastose paint and with a wild gesture. His works are aimed straight at our mind and often make a shocking impact.

The Fine Arts commission of the City of Lucerne dedicated Volume 13 of the series Young Art in the City of Lucerne to Gilles Rotzetter. While the book offers a monographic survey of Gilles Rotzetter’s exuberant art, the exhibition focuses on his current work groups related to the Swiss atom bomb. Over a period of two years the artist undertook research in different archives on this little known aspect of Swiss history. He interweaves paintings, drawings and installations into a complex pictorial cosmos and asks how history is constructed.