In 1994, the Baloise acquired a work by the Canadian artist Jeff Wall for its collection of contemporary art: "Children's Portraits" from 1988 - nine medallions with depictions of children - was installed according to the artist's instructions in the entrance hall of the former Baloise headquarter.



At the same time, the Baloise also acquired "Adrian Walker" from 1992, a portrait of an artist friend from Vancouver. This portrait of a man immersed in his work also contains aspects of a genre painting (in the tradition of Chardin), an interior scene and a still life.



"Adrian Walker" and "Children's Portraits", like most of the works Wall has created since the late 1970s, are based on a photographic process commonly used in advertising: Cibachrome - large-format slides - are mounted in aluminium boxes and illuminated from behind with fluorescent tubes.



Wall often first takes photographs of individual figures, objects and scenes, which he then synthesizes into a homogeneous composition with the help of the computer ("Children's Portraits" is a good example of this procedure).



Wall's works are located at the interface between photography, film, theatrical "mise-en-scène", advanced computer technology and art historical tradition. Wall repeatedly undermines the technical, formal and art historical categories with which his work is attempted to be classified.



Martin Schwander