A study of the meaning and materials behind Markus Raetz’s famous relief series.
Representing vision is a core theme in the art of Markus Raetz (1941-2020). The imitation of a binocular field of vision, which he chose for “Zeemansblik,” is as simple as it is convincing. Raetz created more than twenty versions of this relief, made of painted and later a polished zinc sheet, in various dimensions. The Dutch term
zeemansblik
can be translated as a sailor’s view of the sea, yet
blik
in Dutch also means “sheet metal.” Raetz’s wordplay refers objectively to the material and at the same time invites an interpretation to view the horizontal fold in the plate as a sea horizon. Light reflections on the curved blank material change with the viewer’s moving point of view, suggesting changing weather. A simple, abstract object on the wall thus becomes a seascape without painting, with the longing motif of looking into a blue distance.
In this book, art historian Franz Müller explores the complexity behind the apparent simplicity of Raetz’s “Zeemansblik,” highlighting what makes the relief a landmark of Swiss art.