Franz Gertsch, Saintes Maries de la Mer III, 1972

Acrylic on cotton, 260 x 370 cm

Collection Lentos Art Museum Linz, Inv. Nr. G10012

Moments of the kind captured by a photographic camera are at the bottom of the painting ​“Saintes Maries de la Mer III” (1972). Franz Gertsch had travelled to the Camargue to be present at the annual Sinti and Roma festival in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer. What he recorded with his camera is radically different from a harmless tourist attraction. Young girls are heading for the beach to play there. Low-key, shy encounters.
One of the children seems to sense that someone behind her is looking at her and turns round, looking questioningly at the artist and at us, the observers.
In the painting ​“Saintes Maries de la Mer III” the girls are having fun in the shallow waters of the rocky bay and turn towards us with carefree ease. For this work, the artist used a special cotton fabric and acrylic for the first time, which slowed down the artistic process.