Adrian Schiess

de Roland Wäspe, Ulrich Loock

Smoothly painted panels laid out on the floor have earned Adrian Schiess (b. Zurich, 1959; lives and works in Mouans-Sartoux, France) international renown. Roundly rejecting the traditional forms of painting, the artist has developed a singular oeuvre, gradually effacing all traces of manual craftsmanship. His objects, which may be placed in a room as desired, are conceived as platforms of creative engagement with the appearance and disappearance of painting. Schiess's large-format industrial panels, which are executed in spray paint by specialized car varnishers, have become integral components of buildings by world-famous architects including Norman Foster and Herzog & de Meuron. For this book, Schiess has compiled spectacular series of photographs and extensive conversations with the art historian Ulrich Loock that probe the peculiar quality of his work: hybrid and fluctuating and yet always utterly distinctive. It is the first publication to put the focus on this essential aspect of his output, documenting works created between 1993 and 2018. Exhibition: Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (16.05. - 19.08.2020).