Agenda

The exhibition presents the first retrospective of his work in Switzerland for over 30 years. The highlights among the more than 200 exhibits include the monumental ‘Prometheus Triptych’ (1950, Courtauld Gallery, London) and the ‘Mural for Alma Mahler’ (1954, University of Hamburg), which have never before been seen in Switzerland. Oskar Kokoschka (1886–1980) is one of a generation of artists who retained their allegiance to figurative painting after the Second World War, even as abstract art was consolidating its predominance. The retrospective traces the motifs and motivations by a collection of 100 paintings and an equal number of works on paper, photographs and letters from all phases of his career.

The exhibition shows sculptures of saints whose beauty and expressiveness still fascinate. In addition to numerous statues of saints and their stories, the Palm donkey of Steinen from 1055, the Madonna of Raron from 1150 and a Romanesque figure of Mary, which is considered to be the forerunner of the statue of grace of Maria of the Abbey of Einsiedeln, are also on display. The exhibition gives insight into the diverse world of the saints, their legends, miracles and the traditions of Christianity.

The Greek potter and painter Exekias lived in Athens in the 6th century BC and worked in the Kerameikos, the potters’ quarter of the city. Little is known about his life (born before 550 BC, death around 525 BC), but his vases live on forever. He represents Athenian black-figure painting at its technical and artistic pinnacle and his ceramics were exported to Greek settlements in the Mediterranean and Etruscan territories in Italy. Etruscan graves in Vulci, Chiusi and Orvieto are silent witnesses of his prestige. His horses and a dying Ajax are amongst his most famous depictions. Although he missed the performances of the heyday of Greek tragedies in the fifth century, he was a predecessor of the psychology behind the deeds and appearances of mankind. He was one of the first Greek vase artists to have signed his work both as potter and as painter. For the first time, Exekias’s high quality oeuvre will be displayed in a monographic exhibition. Never before has it been possible to display together some 20 of his works.

The exhibition is dedicated to the theme of ecological issues of our time, such as plastic and global warming. Ecology and sustainable development are seen as a communication system in which man and nature maintain a relationship of exchange and interaction. Electronic art is used to increase public attention and awareness for current ecological issues.

The exhibition shows the works of more than 60 artists, who use scissors and knives to put their view of the city on paper. The works show the diversity of this craft – from the traditional silhouette to the modern collage and the filigree installation. In the past, only the black and white silhouettes were recognized. Today, the works are often colourful and collages, glued and designed with a wide variety of tools.

The Museum of Antiquities celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Ferdinand Schlöth (1818–1891). The Skulpturhalle Basel will put some of the Basel sculptor’s works on display. He created four of the most striking basilisks for the city of Basel as well as sculptures of ancient mythical figures and portraits of eminent Basel professors.

Descendants of Swiss who emigrated to Esperanza in Argentina in the second half of the nineteenth century have aften not forgotten their roots. Esperanza (“hope”) was founded by European settlers in 1853 as a colony on the flat grasslands of Santa Fe province, a region which is still agricultural in character. Generations have since grown up preserving their notion of Switzerland in their own way. The exhibition Suiza Existe is a search for clues to the past in the Esperanza of 2018, about what Switzerland means in Esperanza. They looked, for example, at “Nenes Biergarten” , the Asociación suiza “Guillermo Tell” and the grave of the Hugentobler family. They also met with Maria Rosa Zurbriggen, who recalls how her father would forecast how much rain would fall in a year, in best Valais tradition.

For more than 400 years, Zurich was among the world´s most important centres of silk trade and production. The nineteenth century was the heyday of production, trade and export, to Amerika, France, the United Kingdom, Japan and China in particular. The exhibition tells this story of a forgotten industry, more relevant than watch making in the nineteenth century.

The Cabinet d´arts is exhibiting some 130 paintings, oil studies, watercolours, drawings and lithographs by painter Barthélemy Menn (1815-1893). The exhibition is structured around the landscape and the figure, their representation and their reciprocal relationship. Menn tried to deepen his understanding and then to capture the form systematically, and to organise and to give rhythm to the pictorial surface. Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918) was one of his many students.

The Foundation Pierre Gianadda presents more than 100 works by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901). Many of them are on show in Europe for the first time.