Guenther Baechler

Guenther Baechler studied at the Art Academy Basel before stepping away from artistic practice in 1980 to pursue a career in diplomacy. Over the following decades, he worked in Rwanda, Nepal, Sudan, Georgia, Armenia and Cameroon, among other countries. His return to painting brought this accumulated experience back into the studio, where it became a central part of his visual language.

His work often begins with territories placed under pressure. Darfur and the Southern Caucasus appear alongside melting glaciers, rising seas and drought-stricken landscapes. Borders and lines of contact recur as visual structures, reflecting the ways geography can be shaped by conflict as much as by nature.

The artist has gradually moved away from conventional landscape representation towards an aerial perspective. Mountains, coastlines and fields are reduced to larger structures of colour and form, at times approaching cartography. He describes these works as “earth-scapes”: images concerned with the condition of the land itself and with the forces acting upon it.

Material is central to this approach. Oil, acrylic and spray paint are combined with sand, stone or wood, giving the surface a pronounced physical presence. In some works, these materials establish a direct link with the territories behind the image. Baechler’s dense, scarred surfaces can at times recall Anselm Kiefer, particularly in the way landscape becomes a carrier of historical experience. In Guenther Baechler’s case, this relationship to the land is closely informed by contemporary conflict and environmental change.

Since 2018, his work has been shown in Switzerland, Germany and Venice. Several exhibitions have also been conceived alongside discussions on conflict, peace and environmental change, extending the concerns of the paintings beyond the gallery space.