Gert & Uwe Tobias
An Ocean in Between the Waves

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    “No ideas but in things” declared the American poet William Carlos Williams (1883-1963). No matter how one defines ideas, no matter how they are expressed: shapes, figures, volumes, languages, words, motifs, points, lines, designs, notes, colors, lights... Every oeuvre by the artists Gert & Uwe Tobias stems from this register: there is not an idea, nor a construction, nor a space that is not embodied by juxtaposed, assembled superimposed and/or amalgamated things, even if these things finally end up incarnated as landscapes, characters, animals, objects, artefacts or other more or less identifiable elements... In this way, they belong neither to our own tangible reality nor to any other established universe, yet still they appear perfectly natural, quite plausible and even universal: they are of the order of myths, legends, parables or oral narratives, that have been transmitted or shared and are rendered perceptible through the multiple metamorphoses each work undergoes.

    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/H 3198/01) , 2023
    • Colored woodcut on canvas
      • 200 ×
      • 168 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 3/4 ×
      • 66 1/8 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 205 ×
      • 173 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 80 11/16 ×
      • 68 1/8 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed
    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/H 3195/01) , 2023
    • Colored woodcut on canvas
      • 200 ×
      • 168 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 3/4 ×
      • 66 1/8 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 205 ×
      • 173 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 80 11/16 ×
      • 68 1/8 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3207/00) , 2023
    • Collage on canvas, mixed media, mounted on plywood
      • 49.5 ×
      • 40 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 19 1/2 ×
      • 15 3/4 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 52 ×
      • 42 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 20 1/2 ×
      • 16 9/16 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/H 3194,3,6/01) , 2023
    • Colored woodcut on canvas
      • 200 ×
      • 168 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 3/4 ×
      • 66 1/8 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      •  each
      • 205 ×
      • 173 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 80 11/16 ×
      • 68 1/8 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed
      •  each

    Born in Transylvania, Romania in 1973, the twin brothers Gert & Uwe Tobias currently live in Cologne, Germany. Over the past twenty years, they have developed a four-handed body of work, whose conceptual and production process is unique from every point of view. This process begins with an initial life-sized drawing, from which shapes and figures are cut out in extremely fine plywood. These are in turn coated with a specific color, which is subsequently transferred to the work’s definitive support¬—paper or canvas of varying formats. This approach combines the techniques used in marquetry and stained- glass production, with those of collage and monotype. The different elements are made to fit in and interlock with each other, with the utmost care and precision, so that the final result reveals only the composition desired from the outset. Likewise, the colors are superimposed and juxtaposed with extreme finesse and delicacy to precisely express the harmony of hues envisaged in the conceptual stage.

    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3203/00) , 2023
    • Collage on canvas, mixed media, mounted on plywood
      • 49.5 ×
      • 40 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 19 1/2 ×
      • 15 3/4 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 52 ×
      • 42 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 20 1/2 ×
      • 16 9/16 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed
    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3206/00) , 2023
    • Collage on canvas, mixed media, mounted on plywood
      • 50 ×
      • 40 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 19 11/16 ×
      • 15 3/4 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 52 ×
      • 42 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 20 1/2 ×
      • 16 9/16 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed
    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3205/00) , 2023
    • Collage on canvas, mixed media, mounted on plywood
      • 50 ×
      • 40 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 19 11/16 ×
      • 15 3/4 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 52 ×
      • 42 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 20 1/2 ×
      • 16 9/16 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed
    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3204/00) , 2023
    • Collage on canvas, mixed media, mounted on plywood
      • 50 ×
      • 40 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 19 11/16 ×
      • 15 3/4 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 52 ×
      • 42 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 20 1/2 ×
      • 16 9/16 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3201/00) , 2023
    • Mixed media and collage on canvas
      • 90 ×
      • 85 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 35 7/16 ×
      • 33 7/16 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 93 ×
      • 88 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 36 5/8 ×
      • 34 5/8 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed
    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3202/00) , 2023
    • Mixed media and collage on canvas
      • 90 ×
      • 85 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 35 7/16 ×
      • 33 7/16 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 93 ×
      • 88 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 36 5/8 ×
      • 34 5/8 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3199/00) , 2023
    • Mixed media and collage on canvas
      • 90 ×
      • 85 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 35 7/16 ×
      • 33 7/16 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 93 ×
      • 88 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 36 5/8 ×
      • 34 5/8 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    At the heart of Gert & Uwe Tobias’s oeuvre, there are no questions and equally no answers: everything is maintained in a meticulously nurtured space where nothing is resolved, and from which, now and again, sparkling formulations emerge, of a poetic continent anchored in the deepest recesses of those collected narratives that have fertilized and nourished the most ancestral of thoughts, stories and representations. We are nowhere here, yet paradoxically everywhere. We are both here and there, where things are allowed to exist, flourish and gleam.
    — Marc Donnadieu

    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3200/00) , 2023
    • Mixed media and collage on canvas
      • 90 ×
      • 85 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 35 7/16 ×
      • 33 7/16 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 93 ×
      • 88 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 36 5/8 ×
      • 34 5/8 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed
    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/C 3192/00) , 2023
    • Mixed media and collage on canvas
      • 90 ×
      • 85 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 35 7/16 ×
      • 33 7/16 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 93 ×
      • 88 ×
      • 4 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 36 5/8 ×
      • 34 5/8 ×
      • 1 9/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed


    • Gert & Uwe Tobias
    • Untitled (GUT/H 3197/01) , 2023
    • Colored woodcut on canvas
      • 200 ×
      • 168 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 78 3/4 ×
      • 66 1/8 ×
      •  inches
      •  unframed
      • 205 ×
      • 173 ×
      • 5 ×
      •  cm
      /
      • 80 11/16 ×
      • 68 1/8 ×
      • 1 15/16 ×
      •  in
      •  framed

    Within their practice, Gert and Uwe Tobias have revived a wide range of traditional image-making techniques—woodcut printing, low-relief sculpture, drawing using typewriters, watercolor, gouache, ceramics and lacemaking—into which they breathe new life using contemporary means. Their oeuvre is mainly influenced by the myths, costumes, crafts and commonplace motifs of their native Transylvania, subverted and fused with elements of popular culture, abstract art and contemporary graphic design. From this rich pictorial repertoire, they create a varied body of work in which legends and folk tales, carnivalesque figures and archaic elements are subject to constant metamorphoses.

    Born in Romania in 1973, the twin brothers Gert and Uwe Tobias have been developing a collaborative practice since 2001. Their four-handed work bears witness to the perfect symbiosis of their individual gestures, striving towards a common goal. Today, they live and work in Cologne, Germany. The twin brothers have recently enjoyed exhibitions at the MoMA in New York, the Sprengel Museum in Hannover and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich, both in Germany, The Dhondt-Dhaenens Museum in Deurle, Belgium, the Whitechapel Gallery in London, the Kunstmuseum Ravensburg, Germany, the Kupferstichkabinett at the Staatliche Kunstsammelungen in Dresden, the Maramotti Collection in Reggio Emilia in Italy and the UCLA, Hammer Museum of Art in Los Angeles as well as many other venues. In 2022, they were awarded the Prix du Dessin (Drawing Prize) by the Fondation d’Art Contemporain Daniel et Florence Guerlain.