For Samuel Haettenschweiler (born in Zug, lives in Zurich), colour is the starting point for his work. The exhibition «Das Versprechen» brings together several new groups of works from 2026. These are particularly strikingly condensed in a series of large-format, circular paintings. It exemplifies how the artist explores colour as a cultural and social phenomenon. The chosen shades derive neither from observations of nature nor from the studio, but from a completely different realm: the colour charts of a discount retailer (photo showing the «Mountain Air» colour chart). The artist had them mixed industrially and then sprayed onto circular canvases – using the same technique employed for painting cars or furniture. Each colour is given its own name – Sunday Sky, Innocent Blue, Prestige Grey… These names evoke moods, longings and attitudes to life, and are drawn from the language of marketing. But which authorities decide which colours we perceive as beautiful, modern or desirable? Do such preferences arise from our own perception – or are they shaped by market analyses, trends and advertising strategies?
The images, which are roughly the size of an adult, draw the eye to what we take for granted and make us realise just how closely perception, language and consumption are intertwined. As we lose ourselves in their colours, we simultaneously begin to reflect on the mechanisms that shape our notions of beauty and taste. This is precisely where the power of these works lies: they transform the act of seeing into a reflection on the world.