06 March to 07 July 2011 – Kunstmuseum Basel
Konrad Witz is one of the most radical innovators in the art of painting of the first half of the fifteenth century. He arrives in Basel in 1434, probably attracted by the international atmosphere created by the ecumenical council of the Christian Church that is held in the city in those years. By 1447 he must have died. During this brief period of little more than a decade he creates a series of grand altarpieces, of which only individual panels survive. These paintings evince a powerful new interest in the outside world as perceived in immediate experience. The significance given to light and shadow, to reflections, to the spatial depth of architectures and landscapes attests to Witz’s familiarity with contemporary Flemish painting.

The exhibition aims to unite the extant monuments of Konrad Witz’s art created by his own hands such as the famous ‘Mirror of Salvation-Altarpiece’ for St. Leonard’s in Basel. More than eighty exhibits, including many loans also from the fields of the graphic arts, wall and glass painting, moreover illustrate the influence Witz exerted on his contemporaries. To this end the traditional art-historical approach has been complemented by a thorough technological analysis of the paintings that produce fascinating insights into workshop practices of the time.

Museum Hours

Jonathan Schipper - The Slow Inevitable Death of American Muscle, 2007-2008 Installation The West Collection © 2010 Courtesy of the Artist & Pierogi

Until the 23rd of January 2011 – Museum Tinguely
“Under Destruction” is a group exhibition, the works of 20 international artists, the question of the use and role of destruction in the contemporary art carries on with. With the deliberate timing on the 50th Anniversary of Jean Tinguely’s self-destructive machine Homage to New York (1960), the exhibition shows a number of alternatives to the spectacular, protest-oriented use of destruction in the 1950s and 1960s, as in the works of Jean Tinguely, Gustav Metzger and others was seen. “If nothing can be created, so something must be destroyed” was how La part Rosalind Krauss, maudite by Georges Bataille (1949), together close. This aphorism can be a first moment quite well to the ethos of “Under Destruction” in approach, but this exhibition will serve more than the expectations that are associated with the topic normally: She wants to explore the extent to which and how varied in destruction connected with the creative act, and – more importantly – for what purpose. True to the spirit of Tinguely’s Homage to New York , the show is mainly kinetic and mainly presents work which mechanisms are the viewers in real time to open.

A collaboration with the Swiss Institute, New York, co-curated by Chris Sharp and Gianni Jetzer.

With works by Nina Beier + Marie Lund, Monica Bonvicini, Pavel Büchler, Nina Canell, Jimmie Durham, Alex Hubbard, Alexander Gutke, Martin Kersels, Michael Landy, Liz Larner, Christian Marclay, Kris Martin, Ariel Orozco, Michael Sailstorfer, Arcangelo Sassolino , Jonathan Schipper, Ariel Schlesinger, Roman Signer, John Vogl

Museum Hours

Gustav Klimt, Judith II, 1909 © Fondazione Musei Civici di Venezia, Galleria Internazionale d’Arte Moderna di Ca’ Pesaro

From 26 September 2010 to 16 January 2011 – The Fondation Beyeler
At the turn of the nineteenth to the twentieth century Vienna was one of the cradles of modernism. The city’s coffee house culture, composers and cabaret artists, Freud’s psychoanalysis, the daring experiments of the Wiener Werkstätte, and not least the scandals surrounding the Vienna Secession, were among the phenomena of the period. At the center of our comprehensive exhibition of Viennese Modernism stand the renowned ornamental portraits and landscapes of Gustav Klimt and the expressive figure depictions of Egon Schiele – and naturally their legendary erotic drawings.
Klimt and his brilliant protégé Schiele were the leading lights in Vienna of the day. The exhibition brings together an unprecedented selection of their masterworks from great museums and private collections around the world.

Portraits by the young Oskar Kokoschka, self-portraits by the tragedy-plagued Richard Gerstl, and works by the composer-painter Arnold Schoenberg, form further highlights. Works by other artists, architects, furniture designers, and artisans of the Viennese Secession and Workshops show how their close collaboration gave rise to a new, interdisciplinary form of art: the gesamtkunstwerk.

The Fondation Beyeler exhibition will comprise approximately 200 oil paintings, watercolors and drawings, supplemented by architectural models, furniture, textile designs, glass and silver objects, artists posters, and photographs. These add up to a fascinating picture of Vienna around 1900, of a kind never seen before.

Conceived by guest curator Barbara Steffen, the exhibition enjoys the special support of the Museum Leopold, the Albertina, the Kunsthaus Zug Stiftung Sammlung Kamm, and the Belvedere, MAK, Neue Galerie New York, Wien Museum, and Wiener Secession.

Foundation Hours

From the 19th of  September 2010 to the 14th of  November 2010 – Kunsthaus Basel-Land
As part of the Culture Festival Capes Kunsthaus Basel-Land solo exhibitions by Yang Fudong , Sun Xun and Mireille Gros.

Sun Xun , born 1980 in Fuxin is one of the most aspiring artists of a younger generation.
The artist is v.a. known for his animated drawings, which are filmed separately combined with text and a film spliced together . In his solo exhibition , he shows a great number of drawings and prints, as well as his latest film production. His themes are related to history and politics, are traversed again and again by elements from nature.

Yang Fudong – Born in 1971 in Beijing, artist Yang Fudong has become known in recent years by prominent international appearances.
For the Kunsthaus Basel-Land , he shows all five parts published so far by the ongoing film series ” Seven Intellectuals in Bamboo Forest ” . The films are based on the stories of seven intellectuals as the historical and Jin Dynasty. They met in the bamboo forest to live out their desire for individuality and freedom.

Mireille Gros – The use of the useless
The artist lives in Basel Mireille Gros ( born 1958 ) has addressed significantly in recent years with the state of China and the philosopher Zhuang Zi . Her solo exhibition under the theme “the use of the useless “and shows a series of new drawings , photographs and paintings.

Museum Hours

From 5 September 2010 to 23 January 2011 – Kunstmuseum Basel
In the early 1960s, after a successful career as a commercial artist, Andy Warhol decided to devote himself to the fine arts. Even so, consumerism and the media-oriented nature of mass production continued to be the main thrust of his work. The exhibition highlights the artist’s seminal years from 1961 to 1964. It was then that Warhol
made the transition, step by step, from an individual visual idiom to mediatized, collective visual material and, along with it, to mechanized production. In consequence, he called into question the very foundations of artistic categories in the age of modernism. The exhibition is the first ever to explicitly address this transitional period in Warhol’s oeuvre, demonstrated, for example, by the fact that in 1962 Warhol painted more than one variation on the same picture.

One version may show traces of the gestural and expressive painting process while another – though still painted by hand – already shows the diagrammatic reduction and coolness of his later work. In selected groups of work, viewers can study his approach to silkscreening on a monochromatic ground. Paintings or drawings of Campbell´s Soup Cans and Dollar Bills are especially indicative of the scope of his work from the gestural beginnings to repetitive series of prints. The exhibition culminates in the famous Star series of Elvis and Liz, a gallery of Death & Disaster and the first Flowers series of 1964.
Some 70 paintings and drawings will be on view, including major works from the holdings of the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Kupferstichkabinett.

Museum Hours

Picasso, Pablo: Buste d‘homme a la cigarette

Art 41 Basel takes place June 16 – 20, 2010
The world’s premier international art show for Modern and contemporary works, Art Basel features nearly 300 leading galleries from North America, Latin America, Europe, Asia and Africa. More than 2,500 artists, ranging from the great masters of Modern art to the latest generation of emerging stars, are represented in the show’s multiple sections. The exhibition includes the highest-quality paintings, sculptures, drawings, installations, photographs, video and editioned works.

61,000 people attended Art 40 Basel, the last edition of this favorite rendezvous for the global artworld, including art collectors, art dealers, artists, curators and other art enthusiasts. The Neue Zuercher Zeitung am Sonntag titled
“Die Königin strahlt in neuem Glanz – Von Krise keine Spur.” (The Queen gleams in new brilliance – no sign of crisis.), Le Figaro observed “La Foire de Bale confirme sa place de reine.” (Art Basel remains the Queen) and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung says “Die Art Basel ist nicht zu schlagen. Seit vierzig Jahren unaufhaltsam an der Spitze: Diese Messe wankt nicht.” (Art Basel cannot be beaten. Since forty years irresistably on the top: this fair does not falter).

With its world-class museums, outdoor sculptures, theaters, concert halls, idyllic medieval old town and new buildings by leading architects, Basel ranks as a culture capital, and that cultural richness helps put the Art Basel week on the agenda for art lovers from all over the globe. During Art Basel, a fascinating atmosphere fills this traditional city, as the international art show is reinforced with exhibitions and events all over the region.

Located on the banks of the Rhine, at the border between Switzerland, France and Germany, Basel is easily navigated
by foot and trams.

A Lot More Information, Hours, Exhibitors, price of entry etc…