Vivan Suter

Swiss-Argentinian artist Vivian Suter (b. 1949) was the recent focus of a major retrospective at Kunstmuseum Luzern, where her work could be admired until February this year. Suter was actively involved in the Basel art scene until the 1980s, and was given a solo show at Basel's Stampa Gallery in as early as 1972. After she moved away from the city, however, she disappeared from the public eye. When her works were shown in 2017 at documenta 14 in Athens and Kassel, the response was huge. Since then, Suter has been exhibited in the most prestigious museums around the world. Today, the artist lives and works in Guatemala. "Untitled" provides an insight into Vivian Suter's most recent work. The canvas is painted in gestural fashion with two large planes. As red and black squares, they are clearly separate. Brushstrokes crossing over from one color to the other nevertheless unite them into a single entity. Freed from the stretcher, the canvas has been exposed to nature and bears traces of weathering. For decay and destruction, too, are part of the work-lending it an even more organic air. Staged as a body, the loose, filigree canvases form a dense spatial installation: an interplay of the physical and the ephemeral.