The Collection

The Kunstmuseum Bern owns an important collection of art from the late Middle Ages to the present. The current presentation of the collection shows a selection of around 80 outstanding works of Swiss and international art from the late 19th to the 21st century.

In the basement of the historical Stettler building the central avant-garde trends of modern art are represented with Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism, and abstract art. Highlights include Violin Hanging on a Wall by Pablo Picasso, Meret Oppenheim’s Enchantment, or Piet Mondrian’s Painting No. II. The presentation is complemented by a selection of works by the Bern artist Adolf Wölfli from the holdings of the Adolf Wölfli Foundation.

On the first floor, works by El Anatsui and Kader Attia as representatives of global contemporary art form the prelude. A neighboring room features the very greatest names of international art history: Paul Cézanne, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh. Landscapes by Swiss exponents of modern art such as Félix Vallotton and Giovanni Giacometti complete the exhibition. A side cabinet is dedicated to the legacy of Eberhard W. Kornfeld (1923–2023). It presents the five prestigious paintings that the famous art dealer, collector, and influential mediator bequeathed to the Kunstmuseum Bern in an extraordinarily generous gesture.

List of works from our collection on display

Digital Guide

Discover the exhibition with our Digital Guide.

to the Digital Guide

A variety of other works from the collection of the Kunstmuseum Bern can currently be discovered in the exhibition Amy Sillman. Oh, Clock! (20.9.2024–2.2.2025).

Amy Sillman et la collection du Kunstmuseum Bern