The Beyeler Foundation Collection ~ Near Basel in Switzerland Receives Our Editor

Written by Oliver Trevlund Tuesday, 22 November 2011 00:21

The Fondation Beyeler (Beyeler Foundation) owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler that was built up by the couple over five decades and placed under the aegis of the foundation in 1982. The collection was first publicly exhibited in its entirety at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in 1989. Seeking a permanent home, the Beyelers considered lending the collection to various existing museums, but none of the available spaces would have done justice to the collection. Impressed by the work of world-renowned architect Renzo Piano (the Pritzker prize winning architect who designed the Pompidou Centre in Paris amongst other well known works), the couple commissioned him to design a new purpose-built museum building to be built in Riehen near Basel. When the museum opened in 1997, the collection finally gained a permanent home where it could be made permanently accessible to the public. A masterpiece of contemporary architecture, the museum is airy and through the soft colors, large windows and outdoor park (with two ponds) creates different shades of light and color as they reflect on artworks on the walls of different rooms. Renzo Piano’s building is designed to serve the arts and does not overwhelm the works on display with any architectural extravagances. Designed with simplicity in mind, the building blends into the landscape around it, large windows bring the outside into the building providing views which enhance the paintings on show (particularly effective in the room featuring Monet’s waterlillies paintings, where the visitor can view the waterlillies in the room, but with a small movement and change of perspective, see the real thing in the pond outside the windows and perhaps even reflections of Monet’s works in the water). The outer walls are constructed from red Patagonian porphyry, imported specifically for the museum, and it is topped with a lightweight glass roof which allows the museum to be flooded with natural light. The rooms are defined by their balanced proportions, materials and the special light. Set in an English landscape park with old trees, the gentle paths allow sculptural works by Alexander Calder and Ellsworth Kelly to be enjoyed. A late baroque villa is opposite the museum and houses the museum administration, and the splendid restaurant. The Beyelers always saw the museum as a place of living involvement and innovation, the resulting juxtapositions have provided surprising insights and experiences for a broad range of visitors. Visit the museum’s website at: www.fondationbeyeler.ch

When the museum opened in 1997, the collection comprised about 180 paintings and sculptures, supplemented by 25 selected pieces of tribal art from Africa, Alaska and Oceania. Since then, 38 further prize artworks have been added to the permanent collection. These range from Monet, Cézanne, Van Gogh and Chagall, through Picasso, Léger, Klee, Arp, Dubuffet, Warhol, Lichtenstein and Rothko, to Kiefer and Ellsworth Kelly. Works by the 40 artists featured in the collection provide an extensive overview of classic modern art. Starting with late and Post-Impressionist works by Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh and Claude Monet, it continues via Cubism with Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque to other characteristic groups of works by Joan Miró, Piet Mondrian, Vasily Kandinsky, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Pablo Picasso. American Expressionism is represented by artists like Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock and Barnett Newman, pop-Art by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein. The collection’s time-frame ends with works by Georg Baselitz, Anselm Kiefer and Luciano Fabro. Other artists to feature in the collection include Max Ernst, Francis Bacon and Jean Dubuffet. A number of sculptures from Africa, Alaska and Oceania provide an exciting counterpoint to the works of European and American origin. Most of the works in the Beyeler Collection are paintings but it also includes a few sculptures (both within the museum and in the grounds), including Rodin's intensely kinetic bronze - "Iris, Messenger of the Gods". It ends with works by Baselitz, Kiefer and Fabro. Conceptual art, the second main development in modern art, and more recent trends are intentionally not represented in the permanent collection, but featured in temporary exhibitions. The collection is presented thematically with, for example, sections devoted to portraits, nature, abstraction and the juxtaposing of landscapes and cityscapes. Almost the entire magnificent collection is always on view to local and worldwide visitors.

Until 6 February 2011, the Beyeler Museum is showing “Vienna 1900 – Klimt, Schiele and their time”. The exhibition includes about 200 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings are shown alongside architectural models, furniture, textile designs, glass and silver objects, artist posters and photographs. They paint a fascinating picture of Vienna in 1900, when it became one of the birthplaces of modern art. Works on show include, the famous ornamental portraits and landscapes by Gustav Klimt and the expressive body images of Egon Schiele, portraits by the young Oskar Kokoschka and the tragic self-portraits and works of the painter Richard Gerstl. Until 17 April 2011, “Segantini” shows the works of Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899), one of the great painters of the mountains and the life of the farmers and animals who lived in them. The exhibition celebrates Segantini as a pioneer of modern painting parallel to Monet, van Gogh, Gauguin, Cézanne or Klimt. His huge panels were painted in the open air as he steadily rose higher and higher up the mountains. He reached the summit with the legendary Alpine Triptych, which he prepared with large-scale studies. The increasing elevation of the painting led Segantini in a realm in which it appeared the mountains were an earthly paradise. His last words were "voglio vedere le mie montagne" (I want to see my mountains). The exhibition includes about seventy oil paintings and drawings from all periods of the artists life. Recently opened, and open through 25 April 2011, The Brazilian artist Beatriz Milhazes features in her first solo exhibition in Switzerland. One of the most respected artists of the international art scene, her oeuvre covers the diversity of tropical nature as well as the history and culture of her homeland, reflected in vibrant compositions with arabesques, floral and abstract ornamentation, geometric shapes and rhythmic patterns in bright colors. The centerpiece of the exhibition is a specially-made painting on which Milhazes been working for two years – “The four seasons”.