Kunstmuseum Basel
10.02.2018–21.05.2018
https://kunstmuseumbasel.ch/de/sammlung/highlights
The exhibition Basel Short Stories turns the spotlight on the Kunstmuseum Basel's
rich and in some respects world-famous collection, presenting less
well-known treasures from the holdings in new contexts. The
kaleidoscopic display unites illustrious and obscure, private and
world-historical—and sometimes grotesque—events in the history of Basel
that are brought into focus by art from the Kunstmuseum’s collections.
Basel Short Stories reminds the visitors of the
extraordinary potential of the Öffentliche Kunstsammlung Basel, the
municipal art collection of Basel, by staging a multifaceted dialogue
between forgotten or rarely seen works and icons of the collection. It
reflects all divisions of the collection, from the Old Masters to the
present day, and sheds new light on the humanist Erasmus of Rotterdam,
Hans Holbein the Younger’s masterwork The Dead Christ in the Tomb, the
illustrator and naturalist Maria Sibylla Merian, the historian and art
historian Jacob Burckhardt, the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, the
1912 Basel Peace Congress, the figure skaters Frick and Frack, the
inventor of LSD Albert Hofmann, and the women’s rights activist Iris von
Roten. Each room tells a different story while also contributing to the
concert of voices that make up the exhibition.
Visual short stories unfold in nine galleries, initiated by
works of art, objects, and documents from the holdings of the
Kunstmuseum, the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation, and other private and
public collections in Basel. Several rooms have been conceived and
designed in close collaboration with Silvia Bächli, Pipilotti Rist, and
Not Vital, three artists whose oeuvres are represented in the
An accompanying catalogue published by Christoph Merian
Verlag presents a wealth of materials; illustrations, quotes, and
excerpts from historic documents appearing side by side with essays by
experts in a variety of fields. With contributions by Andreas Beyer,
Andrea Bollinger, Bodo Brinkmann, Maike Christadler, Gabriel Dette,
Patrick Düblin, Søren Grammel, Anita Haldemann, Josef Helfenstein,
Michael Kessler, Andrea Maihofer, Ariane Mensger, Charles Ray, Sabine
Söll-Tauchert, Monica Stucky, Hortensia von Roten, Regina Wecker, Maja
Wismer, and others.