The Kunstmuseum Basel houses the oldest public art collection in the world and is generally considered to be the most important museum of art 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 ...

. It is listed as a Swiss heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends back to the

Amerbach Cabinet The Amerbach Cabinet was a collection of artifacts, paintings, libraries, assembled by members of the Amerbach family, most notably by the two law professors of the University of Basel, Bonifacius Amerbach and his son Basilius Amerbach the Younger. ...

, which included a collection of works by Hans Holbein purchased by the city of Basel and the University of Basel in 1661, which made it the first municipally owned and therefore open to the public museum in the world. Its collection is distinguished by an impressively wide historic span, from the early 15th century up to the immediate present. Its various areas of emphasis give it international standing as one of the most significant museums of its kind. These encompass paintings and drawings by artists active in the Upper Rhine region between 1400 and 1600, as well as the art of the 19th to 21st centuries.

Collection

The Kunstmuseum possesses the largest collection of works by the Holbein family. Further examples of Renaissance art include important pieces by such master artists as Konrad Witz, Hans Baldung (called Grien), Martin Schongauer,

Lucas Cranach the Elder Lucas Cranach the Elder (german: Lucas Cranach der Ältere ; – 16 October 1553) was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving. He was court painter to the Electors of Saxony for most of his career, and is know ...

and Matthias Grünewald. The main features of the 17th and 18th centuries are the Flemish and Dutch schools (e.g. Peter Paul Rubens,

Rembrandt Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (, ; 15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669), usually simply known as Rembrandt, was a Dutch Golden Age painter, printmaker and draughtsman. An innovative and prolific master in three media, he is generally consid ...

, Jan Brueghel the Elder), German and Dutch still life painting. Key works from the 19th century include the Impressionists represented by Édouard Manet, Edmond Jean de Pury, Claude Monet, Paul Gauguin,

Paul Cézanne Paul Cézanne ( , , ; ; 19 January 1839 – 22 October 1906) was a French artist and Post-Impressionism, Post-Impressionist painter whose work laid the foundations of the transition from the 19th-century conception of artistic endeavour to a ...

as well as the paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Switzerland's

Arnold Böcklin Arnold Böcklin (16 October 182716 January 1901) was a Swiss symbolist painter. Biography He was born in Basel. His father, Christian Frederick Böcklin (b. 1802), was descended from an old family of Schaffhausen, and engaged in the silk tra ...

and Ferdinand Hodler. In the 20th century, the focus is on works of

Cubism Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassemble ...

with

Picasso Pablo Ruiz Picasso (25 October 1881 – 8 April 1973) was a Spanish painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist and Scenic design, theatre designer who spent most of his adult life in France. One of the most influential artists of the 20th ce ...

Braque Georges Braque ( , ; 13 May 1882 – 31 August 1963) was a major 20th-century List of French artists, French painter, Collage, collagist, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker and sculpture, sculptor. His most notable contributions were in his all ...

and Juan Gris.

Expressionism Expressionism is a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Northern Europe around the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it rad ...

is represented by such figures as

Edvard Munch Edvard Munch ( , ; 12 December 1863 – 23 January 1944) was a Norwegian painter. His best known work, ''The Scream'' (1893), has become one of Western art's most iconic images. His childhood was overshadowed by illness, bereavement and the dr ...

Franz Marc Franz Moritz Wilhelm Marc (8 February 1880 – 4 March 1916) was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of German Expressionism. He was a founding member of ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (The Blue Rider), a journal whose name later b ...

, Oskar Kokoschka and Emil Nolde. The collection also includes works from Constructivism, Dadaism and

Surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

and American art since 1950. Further highlights are the unique compilations of works from Pablo Picasso,

Fernand Léger Joseph Fernand Henri Léger (; February 4, 1881 – August 17, 1955) was a French painting, painter, sculpture, sculptor, and film director, filmmaker. In his early works he created a personal form of cubism (known as "tubism") which he gradually ...

, Paul Klee,

Alberto Giacometti Alberto Giacometti (, , ; 10 October 1901 – 11 January 1966) was a Swiss sculptor, painter, draftsman and printmaker. Beginning in 1922, he lived and worked mainly in Paris but regularly visited his hometown Borgonovo to see his family and ...

and

Marc Chagall Marc Chagall; russian: link=no, Марк Заха́рович Шага́л ; be, Марк Захаравіч Шагал . (born Moishe Shagal; 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernism, modernist, he was associated with se ...

. In the realm of more recent and contemporary art, the collection maintains substantial bodies of work by Swiss, German, Italian, and American artists, including Joseph Beuys, Andy Warhol, Jasper Johns,

Georg Baselitz Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the ...

A.R. Penck Ralf Winkler, alias A. R. Penck, who also used the pseudonyms ''Mike Hammer'', ''T. M.'', ''Mickey Spilane'', ''Theodor Marx'', "''a. Y.''" or just "''Y''" (5 October 1939 – 2 May 2017) was a German painter, printmaker, sculpt ...

, Brice Marden, Bruce Nauman, Jonathan Borofsky, Roni Horn, Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino,

Enzo Cucchi Enzo Cucchi (born 14 November 1949) is an Italian painter. A native of Morro d'Alba, province of Ancona, he was a key member of the Italian Transavanguardia movement, along with his countrymen Francesco Clemente, Mimmo Paladino, Nicola De Maria, ...

Martin Disler Martin Disler (1 March 1949, Seewen – 27 August 1996, Geneva) was a Swiss painter, draughtsman and writer. He is associated with the ''Neue Wilde'' painting style. Born to a family of gardeners, he was expelled from school in 1968 for disciplina ...

, Leiko Ikemura, Markus Raetz, Rosemarie Trockel and Robert Gober. In 1975, the Dia Art Foundation installed '' Untitled (In memory of Urs Graf)'' by Dan Flavin in the museum's front courtyard and arcade gallery. This permanent, outdoor, installation was funded and installed by the Dia Art Foundation as its first major public work. It was subsequently gifted to the Kunstmuseum in 1980.''An Introduction to Dia's Locations and Sites''. Dia Art Foundation. p. 98.

History

In 1671 the city of Basel decided to make the art collection of the Amerbach cabinet accessible to the public. The collection was exhibited in the near the Munster of Basel and could be accessed by the public twice a week. In 1823 the public collection was joined with the before private Faesch Museum established by

Remigius Faesch Remigius Faesch. (26 May 1595 Basel - 27 February 1667 Basel) was a Swiss jurist and rector of the University of Basel. Remigius Faesch was born into a household of the Faesch family in Basel. His father Hans Rufolf Faesch was a silk merchant an ...

and in 1849 the collection moved into a larger building also near the Munster of Basel. In 1859, a new building for the museum was thought of, inspired by the paintings the Swiss painter

Emilie Linder Emilie Linder (Oct. 11, 1797 – Feb. 12, 1867) was a Swiss painter and art patron. Early life Linder was born in Basel, Switzerland in 1797. She was the daughter of painter Franz Lukas Linder and Anna Maria Dienast; the Linders were an establ ...

had annually deposited in the museum since 1847. As a possible location the building of the was mentioned or also a return to the House zur Mücke was considered.Meier, Nikolaus (1986).p.13 The museum included several other academic departments. A move was seen to give the art collection more room and also enable an efficient rescue of the paintings in case of a fire. Until 1864, the museum included physical and chemical departments. In 1866, also the ethnographic and antiquarian departments were moved to another location following which the artworks received two more prominent rooms. The Gottfried Keller Foundation introduced the painting of ''Cows drinking in the Alps'' by

Giovanni Segantini Giovanni Segantini (15 January 1858 – 28 September 1899) was an Italian painter known for his large pastoral landscapes of the Alps. He was one of the most famous artists in Europe in the late 19th century, and his paintings were collected by ...

in 1904. The Birmann Fonds, which was established to purchase paintings of Swiss painters introduced modern painters and introduced the ''Lac Leman from Chebrous'' in 1905 and ''Rise in space'' in 1910 by Ferdinand Hodler, further ''The Bread'' by Giovanni Giacometti in 1908 and the ''Peasents Garden'' by Cuno Amiet in 1914. With the ''Village in Pontoise'' from

Camille Pissarro Jacob Abraham Camille Pissarro ( , ; 10 July 1830 – 13 November 1903) was a Danish-French Impressionist and Neo-Impressionist painter born on the island of Saint Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands, St Thomas (now in the US Virgin Islands, but t ...

, the first impressionist painting was introduced to the Museum in 1912. In 1936, the Museum moved to its current location. In 1939 a large body of work by German-Jewish artists, whose paintings were considered to be degenerate art by the Nazi regime in Germany, were acquired for the Kunstmuseum under the director George Schmidt. They are on display in the museum up to this day. In 1980 the Museum joined forces with the Museum for Contemporary Art, which displays artworks from the 1960s onwards. It was the first museum focused on contemporary art at the time.

Buildings

Basel - 2017 - Kunstmuseum Basel - Neubau

The Kunstmuseum's current and main building was designed and constructed 1931-1936 by architects

Paul Bonatz Paul Bonatz (6 December 1877 – 20 December 1956) was a German architect, member of the Stuttgart School and professor at the technical university in that city during part of World War II, and from 1954 until his death. He worked in many styl ...

and Rudolf Christ, adjacent to the former building of the Swiss National Bank in Basel. In 1980, a building beside the Rhine in the St. Alban neighborhood was added as an additional location for the museum, the Contemporary Art Museum. In 2008, the museum acquired land on the other side of Dufourstrasse and an architectural competition was held. With international star competitors, such as five

Pritzker Prize The Pritzker Architecture Prize is an international architecture award presented annually "to honor a living architect or architects whose built work demonstrates a combination of those qualities of talent, vision and commitment, which has produ ...

laureates ( Peter Zumthor, Zaha Hadid, Rafael Moneo,

Tadao Ando is a Japanese autodidact architect whose approach to architecture and landscape was categorized by architectural historian Francesco Dal Co as "critical regionalism". He is the winner of the 1995 Pritzker Prize. Early life Ando was born a few m ...

and Jean Nouvel) — all pitching, eventually a young local firm, Christ & Gantenbein, won the project.Bailey, Martin (20 June 2014)
A tale of two extensions
'' The Art Newspaper''. The final design is an angled building, faced with concrete bricks, and at the same height as the original museum. The new building is joined with the main building through an underpass. The new building was completed in April 2016 and its construction was funded by the

Canton of Basel-Stadt Basel-Stadt or Basel-City (german: Kanton ; rm, Chantun Basilea-Citad; french: Canton de Bâle-Ville; it, Canton Basilea Città) is one of the 26 cantons forming the Swiss Confederation. It is composed of three municipalities with Basel as t ...

and the Laurenz Foundation (Laurenz-Stiftung). The extension adds 2,750 square meters of galleries, to a total of nearly 10,000 square meters. The original museum now houses art from the 15th century to 1950, with later works in the extension. The upper floor of the new building houses temporary exhibitions and the middle floor and part of the ground floor houses the permanent collection.

Patrons of the arts

* Peter G. Staechelin * Martin H. Burckhardt (1921-2007), Swiss architect and politician.

Visitors

In 2019, the Kunstmuseum had 265,000 visitors.

Gallery

File:Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach by Hans Holbein the Younger (1519).jpg,

Hans Holbein the Younger Hans Holbein the Younger ( , ; german: Hans Holbein der Jüngere; – between 7 October and 29 November 1543) was a Germans, German-Swiss people, Swiss painter and printmaker who worked in a Northern Renaissance style, and is considered o ...

Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach The Portrait of Bonifacius Amerbach is a painting by the German master of the Renaissance Hans Holbein the Younger. It is deposited in the Basler Kunstmuseum as part of the Amerbach Cabinet. It is painted in tempera on pinewood and measures 29& ...

'' File:Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam by Hans Holbein d. J. in Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg,

, ''

Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam Hans Holbein the Younger painted the ''Portrait of Erasmus of Rotterdam'' several times, and his paintings were much copied, at the time and later. It is difficult to disentangle Holbein's original work from that of his workshop and other copy ...

'' (1523) File:Lucas Cranach (I) - Madonna mit Kind (Kunstmuseum Basel).jpg,

, ''Madonna with child'' (1529) File:Schlafender Knabe im Heu, 1897.jpg,

Albert Anker Albrecht Samuel Anker (April 1, 1831 – July 16, 1910) was a Swiss painter and illustrator who has been called the "national painter" of Switzerland because of his enduringly popular depictions of 19th-century Swiss village life. Life Bor ...

, ''Sleeping boy in the hay'' (1897) File:Vincent van Gogh - Mademoiselle Gachet au piano.jpg, Vincent van Gogh, ''Marguerite Gachet at the Piano'' (1890) File:Paul Gauguin, 1892, Ta matete (Le Marché), oil on canvas, 73.2 x 91.5 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg, Paul Gauguin, ''Ta matete (The market)'' (1892) File:Pablo Picasso, 1905-06, Les deux frères (The two brothers), oil on canvas, 141.4 x 97.1 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg, Pablo Picasso, ''Les deux frères'' (''The two brothers'') (1905–06) File:Juan Gris, 1916, Woman with Mandolin, after Corot (La femme à la mandoline, d'après Corot), oil on canvas, 92 x 60 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg, Juan Gris, ''La femme à la mandoline (Woman with Mandolin)'' (1916) File:The Plague, 1898.jpg,

, ''

The Plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...

'' (1898) File:Paul Klee, 1922, Senecio, oil on gauze, 40.3 × 37.4 cm, Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg, Paul Klee, '' Senecio'' (1922) File:Theo van Doesburg Composition 1923-1924.jpg, Theo van Doesburg, ''Composition'' (1923–1924) File:Blick ins Unendliche von Ferdinand Hodler im Kunstmuseum Basel.jpg, View to Infinity by Ferdinand Hodler

References

External links

Kunstmuseum Basel websiteBasel museums website

List of paintings in collection
{{Authority control 1661 establishments in Europe 1661 in art Art museums and galleries established in the 2nd millennium Buildings and structures completed in 1661 Educational organizations established in the 1660s Museums established in the 17th century 17th-century establishments in Switzerland Art museums and galleries in Switzerland Cultural property of national significance in Basel-Stadt Museums in Basel Arts organizations established in the 17th century Organizations established in 1661