AKN Editor Visits The Kunstmuseum Basel in Switzerland ~ The World’s First Public Museum

Written by Jonathan Riversmith Wednesday, 07 March 2012 21:48

The fascinating history of Basel's public art collection (the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel) can be traced back to the 17th century. When it acquired of the Amerbach Kabinett (a Humanist-inspired collection begun in the pre-Reformation era), Basel became the first municipality to possess its own art collection long before princely collections were made accessible to the public in other cities of Europe. On the death of Basilius Amerbach (1533-1591), grandson of the famous printer and son of a distinguished lawyer who had been a close friend of Erasmus, the encyclopaedic collection contained not only some 60 paintings (among them 15 by Hans Holbein the Younger) and a very large portfolio of drawings and prints, but natural objects, ethnographic artefacts and a library as well. In 1671 the art collection was transferred to the "Zur Mücke" house near the Cathedral Square and opened to the public, becoming one of the city's major attractions. In 1823 the Amerbach art collection, which had already been enhanced by donations from the Council and private donors, was merged with the holdings of as second museum started by jurist Remigius Faesch (1595-1667). This brought not only further paintings by Hans Holbein the Younger, but also important works by 15th to17th century artists from the Upper-Rhine region into the collection. In 1849, the need for more display space resulted in a move to the late classicist, multi-purpose building by Melchior Berri in Augustinergasse (which still houses the Museum of Natural History and the Museum today). A bequest by Samuel Birrmann (1793-1843), a Basel painter and art dealer, helped to introduce an acquisition policy, and in 1855 a fund earmarked for contemporary Swiss art was established under the aegis of the Museum Commission. The Canton of Basel-Stadt, too, has been providing acquisition funding since 1903. With the completion of a purpose-built building by architects Rudolf Christ and Paul Bonatz in St. Alban-Graben, the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung moved into the Kunstmuseum Basel in its present form in 1936. The building has been thoroughly refurbished over the past few years. For additional display space The Museum für Gegenwartskunst was established in a converted factory at St. Alban-Rheinweg in 1980. A joint venture with the Emanuel Hoffmann and Christoph Merian Foundations, many more recent works were transferred from the Kunstmuseum to the new museum. Never content to stand still, the next great challenge for the Kunstmuseum is implementing a planned expansion. This new building, will be located opposite the museum, is intended to be a special exhibition area offering the visitor a constantly new experience. Much remains to be done before the projected opening date of 2015, but its completion will be the latest chapter in this museum's long tradition of re-invention and growth. Visit the museum’s website at: http://www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch

The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the largest and most significant public art collection in Switzerland, particularly Upper-Rhenish and Flemish paintings and drawings from 1400 to 1600 and 19^th to 21^st century international art. The museum has the world’s largest collection of works by the Holbein family. Other highlights of the fifthteenth and sixteenth century are paintings by Konrad Witz, Hans Fries, Hans Baldung (called Grien), Niklaus Manuel (called Deutsch), Lucas Cranach the Elder and outstanding works by the Upper-Rhenish Masters of the fifthteenth and sixteenth century as well as Flemish art of the sixteenth century. The main features of the seventeenth and eighteenth century are the Flemish and Dutch schools (Rubens, Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Francken, Rembrandt, Jacob Ruisdael), German and Dutch still lifes (Wilhelm Claesz Heda, Georg Flegel, Sebastian Stoskopff) and an important group of paintings by the Swiss artist Caspar Wolf. The Kunstmuseum also owns the worldwide largest collection of paintings by Arnold Böcklin. Noteworthy in the nineteenth century collection are the most comprehensive group of Nazarene paintings in Switzerland including works by Koch, Overbeck, and Olivier, important assemblages of works by Füssli, French painting from Romanticism to Realism including Delacroix, Géricault, Corot and Courbet. Swiss art of Birmann, Calame, Anker, Zünd, Buchser, Segantini and Hodler. German art with Feuerbach and Marées and especially French Impressionism with works of art by Manet, Monet, Degas, Renoir , Pissarro, Sisley and Postimpressionism represented by Cézanne, Gauguin and van Gogh. The museum also has 8 sculptures by Rodin. The focal points of 20th-century art on display are Cubism, Expressionism and American art after 1945, including the unique compilation of works by Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris, Fernand Léger, Paul Klee, Hans Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Marc Chagall, Barnett Newman, Joseph Beuys, Jasper Johns, Frank Stella and Bruce Nauman. In January 2005, the Library of the Kunstmuseum Basel moved into a building directly adjacent to the Kunstmuseum. Formerly home to premises of the Swiss National Bank, the building was donated to the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel by Maja Oeri in 1999 and bears the name "Laurenz-Bau", in memory of the prematurely deceased son of the donor and her husband. Apart from the library, the building also houses the administrative offices of the Kunstmuseum and the Department of Art History of Basel University. The Library, which is open to the public, contains over 150,000 titles. Established in 1849 and with its first catalogue dating back to 1859, it is among the oldest art libraries in Switzerland. Most of the works in the Library relate to the history of painting and sculpture from Charlemagne to the present day, with particular emphasis on 15th- and 16th-century German and Upper Rhine art and on Classical Modernism. Some 200 periodicals and yearbooks provide information on the latest developments in the art world and art scholarship. The holdings can be accessed by way of standard author and subject catalogues, but also with the help of special catalogues (auction, exhibition and gallery catalogues, etc.) and periodicals. Use of the Library is free of charge.

Until 13 February 2011, the Kunstmuseum, Basel is exhibiting “Thurneysser – Superstar”. A trained goldsmith, mining proprietor, physician, alchemist, pharmacist and astrologer – the skills and professions of Leonhard Thurneysser zum Thurn (1531–1596) from Basel are no less astonishing than the story of his life. Starting out as a small-scale debtor, he ended up a prodigiously wealthy man. When the successful world traveller came home in 1579, he had the Zürich artist Christoph Murer create a unique cycle of stained-glass windows for his residence in Basel. The cycle glorifies Thurneysser’s life in a manner hitherto generally reserved for saints and princes. Two windows and a fragment of a third one have survived along with three preliminary drawings. Linked to this exhibition, the Kunstmuseum is also showing a selection of designs for glass painting from its own collection, entitled “From Holbein to Murer – Designs for Glass Painting”. Also displayed (until 6 February 2011) is a collection of Lovis Cornith prints. Lovis Corinth (born 1858 in Tapiau, East Prussia, died 1925 in Zandvoort, Netherlands) initially trained as a painter at the Königsberg Academy of Arts, but it was not until he transferred to the Art Academy in Munich that he met artists who gave priority to painting after nature. Landscapes and figures (especially portraits and nudes) became his preferred genres. Although Corinth is held to be a key representative of German Impressionism, his subject matter and painting style as well as his characteristically dynamic and accentuated contours show an affinity with Expressionism. Like the Expressionists, Corinth always sought immediacy in art, as demonstrated in his preference for etchings and the fact that he drew directly on the stone block when making lithographs. The exhibition presents works selected from a collection of over 200 prints by the artist, bequeathed to the museum in 2009.