Agenda

The exhibition (Rembrandt’s Orient. West Meets East in Dutch Art of the Seventeenth Century) examines how Rembrandt van Rijn (1606-1609) and contemporary artists of the Dutch Golden Age reacted to the areas of Orient, the area of the Near, Middle and Far East that came to the fore through trade, travel and publications. The show is not limited to Rembrandt’s oeuvre. In addition to works by his colleagues and students, the presentation includes publications and other sources that illustrate the contemporary vision of the Orient. Placing Rembrandt’s work in this broader context reveals both the ways in which his take on the East was typical of his time and what set his perspective on its cultures apart from those of his contemporaries.

Marguerite Hersberger (1943) is a draughtswoman, painter and sculptress. She develops a sculptural work that is reduced to elementary structures. Questions about the relationship between light and space and the theme of transparency have occupied the artist since the beginning of her work. They are reflected in numerous projects at home and abroad. In the exhibition (Räumliche Transparanz) she shows sculptures and three-dimensional wall objects made of transparent acrylic glass, one of her favourite materials.

The focus of the presentation is on the groups “Pliagen” (Folding). In these works, which are made out of one sheet, spaces are created by applying transparent layers of paint on top of each other. These are taken apart by incisions and create new impressions of colour and space. She is not primarely concerned with the illusionistic, but with the optically perceptible space.

The Swiss artist Raphaël Imer (1976-1998) created an expressive work that he conceived of as a spiritual quest. He almost died at the age of sixteen after a tear in his oesophagus. This experience and the fragility of life gave him a new awareness. He started to paint. It is in Vancouver and then in Montreal that he attended the school of art and developed his style. The museum brings this artist who died too early to the attention of the public with an overview and background of his work.

Johannes Itten (1888–1967) is one of the protagonists of 20th century art history. He also teached at the Bauhaus in the 1920’s.  The exhibition shows how strongly his artistic beginnings were rooted in the city of Thun and how his experience of nature was influenced by Lake Thun and the surrounding area. Starting with his early work, the exhibition presents landscape representations up to his late work, with a series of paintings and drawings that have never been exhibited before. In the Thun landscape, Itten has developed a concept of nature that is fundamental to his art.

The last Duke of Zähringen died in 1218. This dynasty ruled for 150 years in northwest Switzerland, southwest Germany and Burgundy. They were the influential monarchs in the Holy Roman Empire.  They built numerous and castles and founded cities (a.o. Bern, Bräunlingen, Burgdorf, Freiburg (i.Br.), Freiburg i.Ü., Murten, Neuenburg am Rhein, Rheinfelden, Thun). The exhibition deals with art, legends and historical reality, castles, cities, pedigrees and other subjects in a castle also built by the Zähringen.

The exhibition (Von kopf bis Fuss) shows the fascinating visual discourse on the changes and constants in the human image today and 130 thirty years ago. Representations of people have done much more than depict their physiological features. They were also an expression of changing ideas about being human. While in earlier centuries the portrait genre, in particular, was predestined to reflect the respective human image, today the fine arts are turning increasingly to the human body as a whole. Paintings, sculptures, drawings and installations by around fifty artists sheld light from diverse angles on this development of the past 130 years.

The exhibition (Histoires de Paysages) highlights a remarkable collection of the museum that has not been on display for more than 120 years: the works of Christian Gottlieb (1779-1847), better known as Theophilus Steinlen. He came from Stuttgart and later settled in Vevey. He is the grandfather of the illustrator and poster artist Alexander Theophile Steinlen (1859-1923). He founded a drawing school in Vevey in 1816. His watercolours, engravings and drawings in the romantic style are made with great precision and an eye for detail.  They are not only of great artistic quality but are also important from a historical point of view as of an era.

For a long time, the women of Lucerne were not allowed to vote or be elected to political office in the canton (and at federal level). On 25 October 1970, the male population of Lucerne voted to give women a political voice at cantonal level. (1971 for women at federal level) The museum commemorates this 50th anniversary with an exhibition (Eine Stimme haben) and an accompanying programme. The exhibition sheds light on one hundred years of struggle for (more) women’s rights and gives the pioneers a voice and a face.

The Villa presents a selection of the Grammonts by John-Francis Lecoultre (1905-1990). The painter had similar beginnings to Le Corbusier (same origin, same courses at the Art School in La Chaux-de-Fonds, same Parisian dreams), but he returned to Switzerland, to Montreux and continued to paint all his life. The exhibition contributes to highlight this outstanding pastellist, a master of Swiss painting.

The exhibition (Der erschöpfte Mann) takes a stroll through the European cultural history of the male. Eyewitnesses from the past 2,000 years, drawn from philosophy, society, and medicine, illustrate the concept of maleness and the struggle surrounding it. Throughout history, men have created countless heroic ideals for themselves. Since ancient times, the preferred arenas for demonstrating masculinity have been arts, war, technology, politics, and sport, but also the broader field of marriage, family, and sexuality. Featuring around 200 objects from cultural history and art history, the show examines how ideals of masculinity have changed over the centuries.