Silvia Bächli

SILVIA BÄCHLI (Baden, Switzerland, 1956).
"Linien 5," 2002.
Gouache on paper.
Provenance: Galerie Vera Munro. Acquired in 2005.
Measurements: 200 x 150 cm; 211 x 162 cm (frame)

This work is particularly representative of Silvia Bächli’s exploration of the line, an essential element of her artistic language since the beginning of her career. In *Linien 5*, a succession of vertical and horizontal strokes traverses the expansive white field, forming an irregular grid that eschews any rigid geometric construction. Variations in intensity, thickness, and transparency reveal the gestural quality of the work and transform a seemingly simple structure into a surface imbued with rhythm, tension, and depth.

The monumental scale of the paper is particularly significant: here, Bächli translates the immediacy of drawing to a scale approaching that of painting, compelling the viewer to visually traverse the work and perceive the lines as physical presences in space. Created in 2002, the work also belongs to a period of the artist’s full international consolidation; that same year she presented an exhibition at Galerie Vera Munro in Hamburg—the gallery from which this piece originates—and in 2005 the line would give its name to her exhibition *Linien* at the Museum zu Allerheiligen in Schaffhausen.

Silvia Bächli studied at the Schule für Gestaltung in Basel and the École supérieure d’art visuel in Geneva, and from 1993 to 2016 she taught at the Staatliche Akademie der Bildenden Künste in Karlsruhe. In 2003, she received the Prix Meret Oppenheim, and in 2007, the Prix de Dessin from the Fondation Daniel et Florence Guerlain; two years later, she represented Switzerland at the 53rd Venice Biennale. bak.admin.ch She has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as the Centre Pompidou, Kunstmuseum Basel, and Pinakothek der Moderne, and her work is included in collections such as those of MoMA in New York, the Centre Pompidou, the Art Institute of Chicago, and Kunstmuseum Basel.