Provenance:
Galerie Bernard, Grenchen;
Swiss Private Property.

Exhibitions:
Wien, Museum moderner Kunst/Kunsthalle Bern, Johanna II, 1986;
Burgdorf/Bern, Museum Franz Gertsch/Kunstmuseum Bern, Franz Gertsch. Die Retrospektive, 13 November 2005 – 12 March 2006 (verso with label);
New York, Swiss Institute, Franz Gertsch: Polyfocal Allover, 19 September – 2 December 2018.

Literature:
Dieter Ronte. Franz Gertsch. With an essay by Jean-Christophe Ammann. Bern 1986, illustration on page 128;
Exhibition catalogue. Franz Gertsch – Die Retrospektive. Ostfildern-Ruit 2005, No. 37b, page 124, color illustration;
Exhibition catalogue. Franz Gertsch – Polyfocal Allover. Swiss Institute, New York; Lars Müller Publishers, Zurich; Karma, New York 2020, page 104, pages 62/75, full-page color illustrastions.

In the work "Luciano's Leibchen (Fragment IV)" from 1976, Franz Gertsch emphasizes a selected detail: he focuses on the fragment between the left shoulder, neck and hair and refers to his large-format work "Luciano II" (see illustration), also created in 1976, in which he portrayed the then 20-year-old Luciano Castelli sitting in profile in a striped camisole. Franz Gertsch and Luciano Castelli met at the beginning of the 1970s through the director of the Lucerne Art Museum, Jean-Christoph Ammann. From then on, Castelli became Gertsch's favourite model. Luciano Castelli's free-spirited and extravagant lifestyle and the gender-fluid staging of his friends fascinate the artist, who now comes to visit the clique regularly. The Villa Reckenbühl in Lucerne, which Castelli was made available to by his uncle and which he used as a commune, became the scene of extravagant parties and creative gatherings, which Gertsch, who was about 20 years older, documented as an observer, photographed and later painted on canvas as a photorealistic work. The Villa Reckenbühl is transformed in a stage where boundaries between real life and theatre become blurred – life itself becomes art and Franz Gertsch is directly involved.
In contrast to the depictions of social gatherings or party scenes, Gertsch shows the young Castelli in the work "Luciano II" in an everyday, yet intimate moment. He precisely captures a moment of pause.
The work offered here is one of four excerpts from the large-format painting "Luciano II". With the work "Luciano's Leibchen (Fragment IV)", Gertsch puts special importance on details - he invites you to take a closer look.