The Switzerland Traveler

You can pretty much guarantee in Switzerland that it’ s not very often that there is no exhibition of Ferdinand Hodler’s work going on.
This summer, it’s Bern’s turn, with an exhibition at the kunstmuseum.
It runs until Sunday 10th August.
There will be over 130 of his paintings – some of which are by no means small.
The works cover his early, more traditional work, moving on to the abstract, impressionist stuff.
The Swiss view him as someone with a symbolist vision of man and nature forming one harmonious unity. 
I look on him as someone that painted pictures of mountains in a …read more

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Sometimes I wonder if I bang on about art museums too much.
So today, I’m going to talk about another one. But not for the art, for the architecture.
The Paul Klee Museum in Bern was designed by Renzo Piano, who, I must confess, I’d never heard of until a visit to the Lingotto in Turin last year.

The museum is located next to the main Zurich -Geneva motorway, which certainly livens up the journey as one passes it.
The downside is that you can’t step back very far to take in the perspective…
Piano’s idea was to build “the leading centre of competence …read more

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Sometimes I get the impression that there is a major new art exhibition starting every week in Switzerland.
OK, that’s across the whole country but there’s not that many people living here, way less than in Greater london for example.
Today we’re featuring Basel Art Museum’s retrospective about Chaim Soutine, which runs until 6 July.
Born in Russia before the revolution, he travelled to Paris where he worked alongside Chagall and Modigliani.
His work is said to have influenced the painting of Francis Bacon and Willem de Kooning. His landscapes are also said to resemble some of Van Gogh’s paintings, but I’ll leave …read more

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In my last post, I forgot to mention the Hundertwasser Art and Market Hall at Altenrhein, which might be of interest if you are in the area of St Gallen.
If you don’t know Hundertwasser’s work, he can loosely be compared to Gaudí. If you Haven’t heard of Gaudí, you should probably get out more.
The hall is typical of his work, with lots of curves – he referred to straight lines as “the devil’s tools”. Typically, it uses a lot of tiles and loads of wiggles.
There is a gallery with regular exhibitions and a restaurant, so no need to …read more

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The Beyeler Foundation in Basel has an exhibition running at the moment, entitled “Action Painting”.
It runs until the 12th May, and is open daily from 10:00 until 18:00; 20:00 on Wednesdays.
The exhibition covers what is known as “Gestural Painting” over the period 1945 to 1965.
The theory goes that as modern painting developed, artists began to more clearly reflect artists’ personality.
The canvas became (so they tell me) a theatre, a field of action where the artist was able to spontaneously perform.
The exhibition features works by Jackson Pollock, Arshile Gorky, Wols, Morris Louis, Sam Francis, Pierre Soulages, Lee Krasner, and many others.
Fondation …read more

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Well, this surprised me, but apparently Pop Art is a European invention. Forget Warhol and Lichtenstein, London, Paris and, you guessed it, Zurich was the place to be in the 1950s.
And to celebrate that, the art gallery in Zurich is running an exhibition until 12th May.
To quote the gallery’s website:
Art reflects the society in which it is created. The works in the show are grouped according to chapters and express the concerns of the social milieus on both sides of the Atlantic during the late 1950s and 60s.
There are guided tours on Sunday mornings and Wednesday evenings.
www.kunsthaus.chtel. …read more

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Time for another look at what Switzerland can throw at us, both in terms of its landscapes and views of its residents.
First up, a mountain view from Gruyere, which you may remember from a recent post. Photo Courtesy of therealsparkplug
Next a study taken in Zermatt by an_untrained_eye

The Swiss don’t mind graffiti too much if it’s well done, although they do get a bit irritated (understandably in my book) when a nice old building comes in for the treatment. But industrial areas are fair game. Kecko

By the same photographer is the burning of the snowman to mark the …read more

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There can’t be many URLs shorter than www.fiff.ch
Which, just happens to be the website of the Fribourg International Film Festival.
Based around the old station, this year’s festival provides an introduction to the world of the south, mainly Asia, Africa and Latin America.
To quote the website:
The FIFF programmes a cinema of inventiveness and poetry as the expression of a conquered freedom – sometimes at great cost. By getting away from the landmarks and writings of western cinema, the films selected by the FIFF require of the spectator the disposition to be troubled by images, stories and ideas that may not …read more

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Feb 1 sees the start of an exhibition of Adolf Wölfli’s works. Or as the official view goes, hs personal and obsessive view of the universe.
Wölfli was born in 1864, and died in 1930 and I think it’s safe to say he was not happy with his life. Not his real life anyway.
His imaginary life, which he put down in 45 volumes totalling 25,000 pages (which seems like a lot to me) enabled him to get round his problems which included (but not limited to):

childhood abuse
molestation
unhappy career in the army
working as a farm labourer
being orphaned
mental illness
violent tantrums

He evolved …read more

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Rather than focus (yes, the pun is intended) on yet more snow, I thought it would be interesting to look at other photos from Switzerland. A couple of slightly more artistic shots this week, it’s a very cultural country:

Luke Stearns near Mendrisio, Ticino

vabellon Geneva before a storm

viernullvier Zürich at night, double exposure

bdebaca Lake Constance (Bodensee)

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