Cartoonmuseum Basel is the only

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make th ...

and centre of excellence in

Switzerland ). Swiss law does not designate a ''capital'' as such, but the federal parliament and government are installed in Bern, while other federal institutions, such as the federal courts, are in other cities (Bellinzona, Lausanne, Luzern, Neuchâtel ...

devoted exclusively to the art of narrative drawing, be it in

comics a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

graphic novel A graphic novel is a long-form, fictional work of sequential art. The term ''graphic novel'' is often applied broadly, including fiction, non-fiction, and anthologized work, though this practice is highly contested by comic scholars and industry ...

s, comics reportage,

cartoons A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of images ...

, satirical drawings or

animated films Animation is a method by which still figures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most ani ...

. It collects individual works, curates exhibitions and shares knowledge about the genre. The museum contributes to the debate about the art of narrative drawing, and about the social and political issues it addresses. The museum possesses a substantial collection of over 10,000 original drawings by renowned national and international

artists An artist is a person engaged in an activity related to creating art, practicing the arts, or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse refers to a practitioner in the visual arts only. However, the ...

. The museum’s focus lies on curated exhibitions displaying the works of a single artist or illustrating a specific theme. The exhibitions are supplemented by a wide range of art-education activities, such as guided tours,

workshops Beginning with the Industrial Revolution era, a workshop may be a room, rooms or building which provides both the area and tools (or machinery) that may be required for the manufacture or repair of manufactured goods. Workshops were the ...

and talks. A museum

library A library is a collection of materials, books or media that are accessible for use and not just for display purposes. A library provides physical (hard copies) or digital access (soft copies) materials, and may be a physical location or a vi ...

contains primary and secondary literature on the

caricature A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, ...

cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of imag ...

and

comic a medium used to express ideas with images, often combined with text or other visual information. It typically the form of a sequence of panels of images. Textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia can indicate ...

, and presents a broad spectrum of popular and

alternative culture Alternative culture is a type of culture that exists outside or on the fringes of mainstream or popular culture, usually under the domain of one or more subcultures. These subcultures may have little or nothing in common besides their relative ...

and

subculture A subculture is a group of people within a culture that differentiates itself from the parent culture to which it belongs, often maintaining some of its founding principles. Subcultures develop their own norms and values regarding cultural, poli ...

. The

museum shop A museum shop or museum store is a gift shop in a museum. Typical offerings include reproductions of works in the museum, picture postcards, books related to the museum's collections, and various kinds of souvenirs. Art museums often include cloth ...

offers a wide range of

postcards A postcard or post card is a piece of thick paper or thin cardboard, typically rectangular, intended for writing and mailing without an envelope. Non-rectangular shapes may also be used but are rare. There are novelty exceptions, such as wood ...

, selected

monographs A monograph is a specialist work of writing (in contrast to reference works) or exhibition on a single subject or an aspect of a subject, often by a single author or artist, and usually on a scholarly subject. In library cataloging, ''monograp ...

cartoon books Jeff Smith (born February 27, 1960) is an American cartoonist. He is best known as the creator of the self-published comic book series ''Bone''. Early life Jeff Smith was born in McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania to William Earl Smith and Barbara Goods ...

and

comic books A comic book, also called comicbook, comic magazine or (in the United Kingdom and Ireland) simply comic, is a publication that consists of comics art in the form of sequential juxtaposed panels that represent individual scenes. Panels are oft ...

, adapted to suit the respective exhibition.

Collection history and building

20210114 Cartoonmuseum Basel Durchgang Alt- und Neubau

Cartoonmuseum Basel’s

founder Founder or Founders may refer to: Places *Founders Park, a stadium in South Carolina, formerly known as Carolina Stadium * Founders Park, a waterside park in Islamorada, Florida Arts, entertainment, and media * Founders (''Star Trek''), the ali ...

and benefactor was Dieter Burckhardt (1914–1991), an important

patron Patronage is the support, encouragement, privilege, or financial aid that an organization or individual bestows on another. In the history of art, arts patronage refers to the support that kings, popes, and the wealthy have provided to artists su ...

from a well-to-do

Basel , french: link=no, Bâlois(e), it, Basilese , neighboring_municipalities= Allschwil (BL), Hégenheim (FR-68), Binningen (BL), Birsfelden (BL), Bottmingen (BL), Huningue (FR-68), Münchenstein (BL), Muttenz (BL), Reinach (BL), Riehen (B ...

family, who wanted to make his

private collection A private collection is a privately owned collection of works (usually artworks) or valuable items. In a museum or art gallery context, the term signifies that a certain work is not owned by that institution, but is on loan from an individu ...

caricatures A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or other artistic drawings (compare to: cartoon). Caricatures can be either insulting or complimentary, a ...

and

accessible to a wider

audience An audience is a group of people who participate in a show or encounter a work of art, literature (in which they are called "readers"), theatre, music (in which they are called "listeners"), video games (in which they are called "players"), o ...

. In 1979, he founded the foundation Stiftung Sammlung Karikaturen & Cartoons, which has been managed by the larger

Christoph Merian Stiftung Christoph Merian (22 January 1800 – 22 August 1858) was a banker and businessman. He was the owner of a large estate, agriculturist and rentier. He was one of the richest Swiss men of that time. He was an honorary citizen of Münchenstein (1854 ...

ever since. In 1980, the first exhibition opened at St. Alban-Vorstadt 9 under the name of Karikatur & Cartoon Museum Basel. The museum’s collection is enlarged on a regular basis, be it through the acquisition of selected works or the absorption of entire collections. The museum is located on the historic street St. Alban-Vorstadt in

. In 1991, the foundation bought the building at St. Alban-Vorstadt 28, which was subsequently restored and extended by

Herzog & de Meuron Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd.,
" Herzog & de Meuron. Retrieved on 11 October 2012. "Herzog & de Meuron Basel Ltd. R ...

Architects.Website Cartoonmuseum Basel: about us/architecture
/ref> In May 1996, the new Karikatur & Cartoon Museum Basel was opened to the public. In 2009, it was renamed Cartoonmuseum Basel.

Exhibitions (selection)

* 2008/2009 Sempé * 2011

Ralf König Ralf König (born 8 August 1960) is one of the best known and most commercially successful German comic book creators. His books have been translated into many languages. He has resided in Soest, Dortmund and Berlin and now lives in Cologne. ...

. Gottes Werk und Königs Beitrag * 2012 Winsor Mc Cay. Comics, Filme, Träume * 2012/2013 Comics Deluxe! Das Comicmagazin Strapazin * 2013/2014 Die Abenteuer der

Ligne claire ''Ligne claire'' (French for "clear line", ; nl, klare lijn) is a style of drawing created and pioneered by Hergé, the Belgian cartoonist and creator of ''The Adventures of Tintin''. It uses clear strong lines sometimes of varied width and n ...

. Der Fall Herr G. & Co. * 2014/2015

Joost Swarte Joost Swarte (born 24 December 1947 in Heemstede) is a Dutch cartoonist and graphic designer. He is best known for his ligne claire or ''clear line'' style of drawing, a term he coined. Comic series and characters by Swarte include ''Katoen en ...

. Zeichner und Gestalter * 2015/2016

Joe Sacco Joe Sacco (; born October 2, 1960) is a Maltese-American cartoonist and journalist. He is best known for his comics journalism, in particular in the books '' Palestine'' (1996) and '' Footnotes in Gaza'' (2009), on Israeli–Palestinian rela ...

. Comics

Journalist A journalist is an individual that collects/gathers information in form of text, audio, or pictures, processes them into a news-worthy form, and disseminates it to the public. The act or process mainly done by the journalist is called journalis ...

* 2016

Aline Kominsky-Crumb Aline Kominsky-Crumb (née Goldsmith; August 1, 1948 – November 29, 2022) was an American underground comics artist. Kominsky-Crumb's work, which is almost exclusively autobiographical, is known for its unvarnished, confessional nature. In 201 ...

Robert Crumb Robert Dennis Crumb (; born August 30, 1943) is an American cartoonist and musician who often signs his work R. Crumb. His work displays a nostalgia for American folk culture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, and satire of contem ...

. Drawn Together * 2016/2017 dr. Zep & mr.

Titeuf ''Titeuf'' (known sometimes as ''Tootuff'' in English) is a French comic series created by Swiss comic books creator Zep in 1992, which was adapted into a 2001 animated TV series and a 2011 film of the same name. It also appears in the dedica ...

* 2017

Christoph Niemann Christoph Niemann (born 1970) is an illustrator, graphic designer, and children's book author. Since July 2008, Niemann has been writing and illustrating '' The New York Times'' blog Abstract City, renamed Abstract Sunday in 2011, when the blog ...

. That’s How! * 2017/2018

Lorenzo Mattotti Lorenzo Mattotti (born 24 January 1954) is an Italian comics artist as well as an illustrator. His illustrations have been published in magazines such as ''Cosmopolitan'', ''Vogue'', '' The New Yorker'', ''Le Monde'' and '' Vanity Fair''. In comi ...

. Imago * 2018/2019 Le Monde de Tardi * 2019

Joann Sfar Joann Sfar (; born 28 August 1971) is a French comics artist, comic book creator, novelist, and film director. Life and career Sfar was born in Nice, the son of Lilou, a pop singer, who died when he was three, and André Sfar, a lawyer well kn ...

. Sans début ni fin * 2020/2021

Brecht Evens Brecht Evens (born 1986)Brecht Evens, De Liefhebbers, Ed. Oogachtend 2011, p.219 is a Belgian graphic novel artist and illustrator. Early life Brecht graduated from ''Sint-Lucas Fine Arts'' in Ghent in 2008 with a specialization in Illustrat ...

. Night Animals

Publications (selection)

* ''How to Love. Graphic Novellas by Actus Comics''. Cartoonmuseum Basel (Hg.). Christoph Merian Verlag, 2011, * ''Comics Deluxe! Das Comicmagazin Strapazin''. Cartoonmuseum Basel (Hg.). Christoph Merian Verlag, 2012, *

. ''Zeichner und Gestalter''. Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Cartoonmuseum Basel. 2014, * ''Zeichner als Reporter.

. Comics Journalismus''. Pierre Thomé, Anette Gehrig, Yves Noyau (Hg.). Christoph Merian Verlag, 2015, *

. ''Drawn Together.'' Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Christoph Merian Verlag, 2016, *

. ''Ligne Fragile.'' Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Christoph Merian Verlag, 2017, *

. ''Ohne Anfang und Ende – Comic in Arbeit.'' Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Cartoonmuseum Basel, 2019 * Victoria Lomasko. ''Other Russias.'' Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Cartoonmuseum Basel, 2019 * Tom Tirabosco. ''Trente oiseaux morts.'' Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Cartoonmuseum Basel, 2019 * Christoph Fischer. ''Während ich schlief''. Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Christoph Merian Verlag, 2020, *

. ''Idulfania.'' Cartoonmuseum Basel, Anette Gehrig (Hg.). Christoph Merian Verlag, 2020,

Directors and curators

* 1979–1994 Jürg Spahr * 1995–2004 Daniel Bolsiger * 2004–2007 Simone Thalmann, Michael Mauch * 2008 Anna Bonacci (Januar bis August 2008, ad interim) * Seit 2008 Anette Gehrig

Footnotes

External links