Media Releases 2011
The Transition from the Soviet Union to Russia
Passion and Painting. Russian Art since 1970
The Kunstmuseum Bern is now showing one of the key collections of Russian contemporary art. Arina Kowner’s collection comprises over 200 works of art by 48 artists from 1970 to 2008. The focus of the collection is the period of social and political transition in the former East Bloc from 1984 to 1996, presenting an art-historical documentation of unique epochal change. The show is part of the series of exhibitions in Bern on Russian contemporary art.
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The Intrepid Search for Proximity to Suffering
The Mystery of the Body: Berlinde De Bruyckere in Dialogue with Lucas Cranach and Pier Paolo Pasolini, 21.10.2011 - 12.02.2012
The Kunstmuseum Bern is presenting the largest monographic exhibition of works by Berlinde De Bruyckere (b. 1964) hitherto shown in Europe. The Flemish artist creates deceptively real sculptures and touching drawings of human bodies suffering. The presentation brings them into a dialogue with the works of the German Renaissance painter Lucas Cranach and the Italian film maker Pier Paolo Pasolini.
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Drawing as a Field for Experiment
«Anna Blume and I». Drawings by Kurt Schwitters, 23.09. 2011 - 08.01.2012
Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) is one of the leading protagonists of 20th-century art. He revolutionized the collage with his so-called Merz pictures, which he assembled from newspaper cutouts, advertisements, fabric, metal, and even rubbish. And furthermore, today we see in him a pioneer of contemporary installation art. The exhibition in the Kunstmuseum, however, testifies to another side of the artist – to the fact that Schwitters was also a highly innovative draftsman.
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Modernist Classics and Contemporary Art face-to-face
„Rectangle and Square“. From Picasso to Judd - Acquisitions of the Rupf Foundation, 14.09.2011 - 08.01.2012
At the beginning of the 20th century, Hermann and Margrit Rupf laid the foundations for a collection that is now regarded as one of the leading of its kind for European modern art. Due to the fact that a foundation was established in the 1950s in the Kunstmuseum Bern, the collection is open to the public and is being, up to the present and beyond, constantly enlarged. The exhibition presents modernist artworks in dialogue with contemporary art. Thus Pablo Picasso is confronted by Meret Oppenheim, Fernand Léger meets Donald Judd, and Paul Klee finds himself face-to-face with Ilya Kabakov.
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Amiet and the Collector of his Work
Amiet. „Joy of My Live“, The Eduard Gerber Collection, Aug. 19, 2011 - Jan. 15, 2012
To commemorate the 50th anniversary of Cuno Amiet’s death, the Kunstmuseum Bern is presentinig the Eduard Gerber Collection, one of the most beautiful private collections of this artist’s work. Besides the collection of this great admirer of the artist we will also be showing works from the Kunstmuseum Bern representing Cuno Amiet’s "official" oeuvre. Thus the exhibition offers a representative overview of Amiet’s work.
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The Artist – A Valaisan Dandy
Ernest Biéler. Dreamt Reality, 08.07. - 13.11.2011
In collaboration with the Pierre Gianadda Foundation, the Kunstmuseum Bern is presenting a representative overview of the work of the Swiss artist Ernest Biéler (1863-1948). The show offers the opportunity of not only seeing Biéler’s enigmatic, symbolist figural compositions but also his paintings of simple country life in the Valais region alongside his decorative works. We invite our visitors to rediscover Biéler in an exhibition that revises the artist’s status and demonstrates his significance in international art developments.
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Art in Harmony with Life and Nature
In collaboration with Kunsthaus Langenthal Endless Possibilities: Martin Ziegelmüller – An Overview of his Work Kunstmuseum Bern 20.05. - 14.08.2011 Kunsthaus Langenthal 19.05. – 10.07.2011
Together, the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Kunsthaus Langenthal are presenting an overview of Martin Ziegelmüller’s diverse oeuvre. After over fifty work years, this Bernese artist has produced a vast number of paintings embracing an extraordinary scope of subject matter. For the very first time, this double exhibition will provide our visitors with the opportunity of experiencing the whole range of Ziegelmüller's painting.
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Back from Munich: Treasures from the collection return to Bern
Back from Munich. Highlights of the Collection from Seven Centuries of Swiss Art, 01.04. - 26.06.2011
The highlights of our collection are returning to their home in the Kunstmuseum Bern after the successful Munich exhibition … Giacometti, Hodler, Klee ... Hosting the Kunstmuseum Bern in the Kunsthalle der Hypo-Kulturstiftung – an exhibition with over 80,000 visitors. The artworks will be shown in a special show bearing the title Back from Munich, supplementing our new collection presentation with its representative overview of Swiss art ranging from the late Middle Ages to the present.
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Chile is everywhere
DISLOCACIÓN. Cultural Location and Identity in Times of Globalization, March 18 – June 19, 2011
On the occasion of the bicentenary of Chile’s independence, the Swiss Embassy in Santiago invited the Swiss-Chilean artist Ingrid Wildi Merino to conceive and organize an exhibition. Pro Helvetia, together with other foundations and institutions, made this exemplary cultural-exchange project possible. It was already on view in 2010 in Santiago de Chile, and now is being presented in the Kunstmuseum Bern. The works on show were made especially for the exhibition, created by 14 artists from both Chile and Switzerland. The outcome is an artists’ research project that traces globalization’s worldwide impact as well as its historical origins.
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Passionate Sensuality
Picasso. The Power of Eros - Prints from the Georges Bloch Collection, 25.02. - 01.05.2011
The Kunstmuseum Bern is showing the world-famous artist Pablo Picasso with around 100 of his prints from the Georges Bloch collection. The Zurich textile industrialist Georges Bloch (1901-1984) began collecting Picasso’s prints around the mid-1920s and, with his extensive knowledge of the art and the artist, acquired a highly representative and extensive collection. He donated around one quarter of it to the Gottfried Keller Foundation, which had the holdings deposited in eight different Swiss fine art museums. Our exhibition foregrounds subject matter that fascinated and preoccupied Picasso his life long, and especially in printmaking: The Power of Eros.
Media releaseManifold Attractions for Enjoying Art: The Familiar and New Discoveries
Annual Media Conference Thursday, January 20, 2011
The Kunstmuseum Bern is offering an extensive program in 2010 with ten exhibitions that appeal not only to our regular audience but also entice new groups of the community to come and visit. It will be showing familiar artworks from novel perspectives and offer our audience the chance to discover novel treasures. In a comprehensive presentation our collection will be in the spotlight. Additionally, various projects initiated by the Kunstmuseum Bern will be further pursued: the new website will go online, the building project “Extensions Within” is being assessed, and we have appointed the project committee for evaluat-ing our collaboration with the Zentrum Paul Klee.
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