Artists

Albrecht Dürer

Press release

If you close your eyes and think of Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), you will see something. Be it his self-portrait from 1500, in which he dared to stage himself in an iconic and Christ-like manner, be it the watercolour lawn piece with which he elevated the ground beneath our feet to eye level, or be it his omnipresent copperplate engraving of the naked primal parents, in which he summarised his studies on the proportions of the human body and at the same time proved that artists like him do not need colours to surpass nature itself.

Whether an artist’s influence extends beyond the circles of an elite art-loving public is measured by whether he or she is also encountered outside of well-tempered museum spaces. Reproductions of Albrecht Dürer’s pictorial creations have conquered just about every conceivable place: from school textbooks to grandparents’ bedrooms or, most recently, public swimming pools, as his “Praying Hands” or the enigmatic “Melancholia” are now part of the standard repertoire of every tattoo studio.

The Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich not only owns Albrecht Dürer’s graphic work almost in their entirety, but also in enviable quality, including examples of his rare iron etchings and drypoint works. The selection of works for the exhibition will focus on emphasising Dürer’s relevance to current art discourses and honouring him as an artist who, above all in his prints, succeeded not only in breaking norms but also in setting standards.

Curated by Dr Susanne Pollack, Graphische Sammlung ETH Zürich