Silvia Bächli

ohne Titel, 2010

In the late 1970s, Silvia Bächli began working out a drawing and painting practice that could be described as a sensual, evocative conversation with the things, materials, experiences and gestures that were immediately close to her. She uses white or slightly tinted paper in medium format and employs all conceivable black and white techniques: chalk, watercolor, Indian ink, gouache, pencil. The sheet of the Mercedes-Benz Art Collection belongs to a thematic group that has been varied over almost two decades, in which narrow lines, fraying bundles of fibers, vertical layered stripes or brush strokes like narrow rivers flow from above into the empty space surrounding the paper. “One constant has existed since the beginning: space. Good drawings are larger than the format limited by the edge of the sheet. The paper works are like sculptures, they protrude differently into the space in which we move.” (S.B.)