The Kunstmuseum Bern is Switzerland's oldest fine art museum with a permanent collection ranging from Gothic times to the present. With currently over 3000 paintings and sculptures as well as around 48,000 drawings, prints, photographs, videos and films, it boasts not only one of Switzerland's leading collections but also international renown. The great diversity of its collection, including works by Ferdinand Hodler, Paul Klee, Albert Anker, Pablo Picasso, Franz Gertsch, Vincent van Gogh, Meret Oppenheim and many more, has secured the Kunstmuseum Bern an outstanding reputation worldwide. Large groups of works by Bernhard Luginbühl, Markus Raetz, Urs Lüthi, Dieter Roth and Sigmar Polke represent contemporary approaches.
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The Kunstmuseum Bern is Switzerland's oldest fine art museum with a permanent collection ranging from Gothic times to the present. With currently over 3000 paintings and sculptures as well as around 48,000 drawings, prints, photographs, videos and films, it boasts not only one of Switzerland's leading collections but also international renown. The great diversity of its collection, including works by Ferdinand Hodler, Paul Klee, Albert Anker, Pablo Picasso, Franz Gertsch, Vincent van Gogh, Meret Oppenheim and many more, has secured the Kunstmuseum Bern an outstanding reputation worldwide. Large groups of works by Bernhard Luginbühl, Markus Raetz, Urs Lüthi, Dieter Roth and Sigmar Polke represent contemporary approaches.
Dali’s cryptic painting is based on a picture executed by Millet. The famous surrealist transformed the idyllic landscape into a scene of horror, filling it with macabre eroticism.
Misia Natanson was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s friend and muse. He painted her portrait nine times in all. Find out more about this artist, who descended from an old aristocratic family, and the pianist from Saint Petersburg, who was the patroness of numerous other artists such as Renoir, Vallotton and Bonnard.
Alexandre Calame’s painting is firmly rooted in the romantic tradition. Find out more about his painting of the Eiger and why this artist from western Switzerland traveled to the Bernese Oberland.
The composition of Louis Moilliet’s richly colored painting is highly sophisticated. Find out more about this artist, who was born in Bern, and very unjustly destined to be overshadowed by his friends Paul Klee and August Macke. He accompanied them on a trip to Tunisia in 1914.
Find out more about Chaim Soutine’s expressive painted masterpiece depicting a slaughtered ox. And about the painter too, who was friends with both Modigliani and Chagall. He lived and worked in the La Ruche studio collective in Paris.
Find out more about Johannes Itten, who was born in Emmental and was a Bauhaus teacher and “master.” This abstract painting demonstrates Itten’s theory of color and design in practice, which proved groundbreaking for developments in modern art.
Despite its asymmetry, Piet Mondrian's painting emanates harmony and serenity. Find out more about why the Dutch artist decided to compose only with rectangles and black lines in his paintings. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Max Ernst has the sun set in a mysterious, nocturnal forest landscape. Find out in what way this artwork is relevant to the artist's childhood. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Hans Arp and his wife Sophie Taeuber-Arp produced a number of artworks together. Find out in the video how the richly contrasting pictures mirror the relationship between the two artists. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Adolf Wölfli, who spent many years of his life in the Waldau psychiatric clinic near Bern, created a universe of his own in drawings and writings. The wealth of lines, patterns, musical notation and script is literally mesmerizing to look at. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Find out more about why John the Baptist rebuked Herod, king of Judaea, and why the unknown painter who executed the Bernese John the Baptist Altar is called the "Carnation Master." From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
On his last trip to Wales, the English painter Alfred Sisley executed a series of views of the coastline. The paintings leave an impression of eternity and, at the same time, express the singularity of the moment. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
« Fruit Harvest » clearly demonstrates the extent to which the artist, who was born in Solothurn in1868, engaged with the trends of his era. Amiet created a sgraffito of an apple harvest for the main façade of the building in 1936, long after this painting was completed. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Learn more about the artistic credo of Henri Matisse and about the woman who served Matisse as a model for several years. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Immerse yourself in this great work of Rothko and the world of Abstract Expressionism. Learn how the artist succeeded to establish "a consummated experience between picture and onlooker". From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Pierre Bonnard's most common motifs are brightly lit gardens and landscapes, colourful still lifes and initmate female nudes. The woman relaxing and dozing in the deckchair represents his muse, life partner and future wife Marthe. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Alberto Giacometti is one of the most renowned sculptors of the 20th century. His "Woman from Venice I" is a figure full of contradictions: on the one hand she is upright and self-assured, but on the other she is fragile and vulnerable; her feet anchored on the ground, timeless yet contemporary, she stands for the individual that human beings by definition embody. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
The artist found the artistic inspiration for his works in his jewish-russian background. Find out more about this painting, very likely dedicated to his fiancé. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Wassily Kandinsky, born 1866 in Russia, was a painter, graphic artist and art theoretician. Using strong contrasts in shape and color, Kandinsky makes the disjointedness of the period before the First World War visible. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Due to his colorful and visionary paintings Joan Miró was one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. Learn more about Miró's work of art and why the technique of collage was so important to him.From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
The Kunstmuseum Bern is Switzerland's oldest fine art museum with a permanent collection ranging from Gothic times to the present. With currently over 3000 paintings and sculptures as well as around 48,000 drawings, prints, photographs, videos and films, it boasts not only one of Switzerland's leading collections but also international renown. The great diversity of its collection, including works by Ferdinand Hodler, Paul Klee, Albert Anker, Pablo Picasso, Franz Gertsch, Vincent van Gogh, Meret Oppenheim and many more, has secured the Kunstmuseum Bern an outstanding reputation worldwide. Large groups of works by Bernhard Luginbühl, Markus Raetz, Urs Lüthi, Dieter Roth and Sigmar Polke represent contemporary approaches.