The 2011 programme at the Kunsthaus Zürich is the most exciting yet. News of one highlight has already leaked out: the prestigious private collection of the Nahmad family is to receive its world premiere in Zurich.
There will be a retrospective of the work of Franz Gertsch, one of the most important contemporary Swiss artists. Full of fascinating insights, ‘The Original Copy: Photography of Sculpture’ transfers to the Kunsthaus Zürich from the Museum of Modern Art New York. There is a revival for the ecological and political work of Joseph Beuys. ‘Beastly Good Show’ will be of particular interest to families. Exhibitions featuring the most recent work of Roman Ondák and international rising star Haris Epaminonda will be of particular interest to experimental art enthusiasts.
The 2011 annual programme of the Kunsthaus Zürich is now available. When the exhibitions marking the institution’s 100th birthday have finished (‘Picasso’, until 30 January 2011, ‘Karl Moser – Art and Architecture’, 17 December 2010–27 February 2011), the momentum continues with a raft of top-flight events and international cooperations.
EXHIBITIONS
The Original Copy. Photography of Sculpture, 1839 to Today.
25 February to 15 May 2011
A critical assessment of the aesthetic and theoretical intersections of photography and sculpture. Some three hundred outstanding photographs by more than one hundred artists from the 19th century to the present day sketch out photography’s potential to influence and to challenge our conception of sculpture. The exhibition does not stop at a study of the reasons for sculpture’s emergence as a subject for photographers, but also demonstrates how 20th-century photography enhanced the realm of the sculptural. With works by Eugène Atget, Hans Bellmer, Herbert Bayer, Constantin Brancusi, Brassaï, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Christo, Marcel Duchamp, Fischli / Weiss, Robert Frank, David Goldblatt, Rachel Harrison, Hannah Höch, André Kertész, Man Ray, Bruce Nauman, Gillian Wearing, Hannah Wilke and many others. The exhibition was organized by The Museum of Modern Art, New York.
Alberto Giacometti – The Art of Seeing. 11 March to 22 May 2011
Seeing is the basis of all visual art, and few artists have focused so centrally on the process of seeing as Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966). The exhibition examines his reflections and experiments on the subject, with the help of works from all phases of his career.
Beastly Good Show! DogCatMouse at the Kunsthaus Zürich.
1 April – 31 July 2011
Human beings have been inspired by their nearest relatives, the citizens of the animal kingdom, since they first began creating art, and are still at it today. The Kunsthaus contains numerous testimonies to this artistic preoccupation. The exhibition is a chance for all – young and old – to explore the collection and take a trip through the history of art at the same time.
Joseph Beuys. Difesa della Natura. 13 May – 14 August 2011
Defence of nature. For decades, Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) would spend a few weeks each year in Bolognano, Abruzzi, working on an aesthetico-ecological project. Numerous sculptures, drawings, photographs, prints and brochures were created to accompany his wide range of local activities.
Franz Gertsch. Seasons. 10 June – 18 September 2011
The opening of this exhibition by Franz Gertsch (*1930) coincides with the completion of his masterful ‘Four Seasons Cycle’. Although the Kunsthaus show focuses on this piece, it goes well beyond it to present a retrospective of Gertsch’s work since the 1980s. Gertsch, one of Switzerland’s leading contemporary artists, has acquired outstanding international renown with his hyper-realist paintings as well as with his woodcuts, unique both technically and in format. The exhibition is being staged in close collaboration with the artist.
Supported by Swiss Re – Partner for contemporary art.
Roman Ondák. 10 June – 28 August 2011
The Kunsthaus Zürich is the first museum in Switzerland to mount a solo show of work by Slovakian artist Roman Ondák (*1966). Among the leading members of a young generation of conceptual artists, Ondák works with a variety of media, creating drawings, photographs, sculptures and performative works depending on the context. He is creating a new piece especially for the Kunsthaus, which will be on show exclusively in Zurich.
Haris Epaminonda. 16 September – 27 November 2011
Born in Cyprus in 1980, Haris Epaminonda has participated in major international group exhibitions and aroused interest with solo shows at the Malmö Konsthall and Tate Modern, London. Her work is based on the principle of collage, and she often uses images from books or re-edits television films and series from the 1950s and 1960s. In addition to existing works, she will also be showing a film produced especially for the Kunsthaus show.
The Nahmad Collection. 21 October 2011 – 15 January 2012
The far-flung Nahmad family, based in Monaco, collect major works of art; indeed, now in its second generation, their patronage has seen the family name appear frequently in some of the more spectacular auctions of recent times. Now, for the first time ever, one hundred major pieces from what is thought to be a one-of-a-kind private collection are to go on show in an exclusive exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich. Picasso, with a breathtaking selection of work from all phases of his career, is one of the best-represented artists in the collection; but there are also Matisse, Modigliani and Kandinsky, with whole series of brilliant pieces; and Claude Monet, one of the ancestors of the modernist movement, with late, luminous images of his travels in the south. But although the Nahmad Collection is ostensibly committed to the orthodox canon, it has its eclectic touches too, including works by proponents of late Impressionism (Renoir, Degas and Seurat) at the end of the 19th century, through advocates of Cubism and Abstract Art all the way to the Surrealists: Salvador Dalí and Max Ernst rub shoulders with exceptional pieces by Joan Miró, for a truly astonishing tour of some great moments in modern art. The Nahmad Collection! A contribution to culture by Credit Suisse – Partner of the Kunsthaus Zürich.
Albert Welti – Landscape in Pastel. 16 December 2011 – 4 March 2012
Pastel painting has been a recognized technique since the 18th century. Albert Welti (1862–1912) was a master of the art with a style that was very much his own. Featuring fifty intensely coloured pastels, the Kunsthaus exhibition showcases Welti’s enthusiasm for the virtually irrepressible interaction of light and the human eye.
Image: Kunsthaus Zürich Photo © Anita Affentranger
www.kunsthaus.ch
