September 5, 2010 to January 23, 2011
After a successful career as a graphic designer, in the early 1960s Andy Warhol decided to become an independent artist. Meanwhile, he maintained a focus on the world of consumption and mass culture. The exhibition illuminates Andy Warhol's critical early years as a painter and drawer, from 1961 to1964. During these years, Warhol progressively replaced an individual pictorial language with an already mediatized, thus collective body of images, as well as mechanical procedures. This innovation in painting fundamentally expanded the field of possibilities for artistic expression, and its repercussions have continued into the present. Approximately 70 paintings and drawings will be on view, including important works from the collection of the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Kupferstichkabinett.
Until September 5, 2010
The Fondation Beyeler plans a large retrospective to mark the fiftieth birthday of the American painter and draftsman Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988). Originating from the New York underground, the artist had become world famous for his expressive paintings by the early age of twenty. His friendships with Madonna, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring have become legendary. Until his tragic, premature death, Basquiat created an impassioned oeuvre of paintings, drawings and objects. His powerful compositions, inspired by music, comics and sports, combined elements from popular culture and cultural history.
Until September 12, 2010
"Man is the most successful machine on earth … from the neck up he is amazing, from the neck down he is no match for other machines,” said Edwin Johnson in 1968. He suggested that a combination of the best characteristics of man and machinery ought to produce "the ideal machine”. Pioneering artists such as the Australian Stelarc tried to turn the idea into literal reality. The idea of artificial intelligence has been developed further over the years: a machine should copy human thinking. The display of exhibits spanning about fifty years is dedicated to the relationships between man and machine. Artists of international repute have created new works for the exhibition. Inspired by research, these explore the great question of whether humans can be replaced by machines.
September 23, 2010 to March 27, 2011
Migration is not just a modern-day phenomenon; in fact, people have always migrated. Only in recent years has Switzerland become an immigration country; for most of its history, it was a country from which people wanted to emigrate. This exhibition at the Barfüsserkirche will explore the many different types of migration that have taken place over the centuries as well as the many different factors that have induced people either to leave Basel or to choose Basel as their new home. On closer scrutiny, many of the most famous names in Basel's history turn out to have been immigrants. No less astonishing is the number of Basel natives who elected to seek their fortune elsewhere. By providing an insight into the past, this exhibition will help visitors put the present in perspective. Guided visits are also planned in a number of languages.
September 26, 2010 to January 9, 2011
With the Wiener Werkstätte and Vienna Secession, fin-de-siècle Vienna was one of the cradles of modern art. Coffee house culture and the scandals surrounding the Secession were among the epoch-making phenomena of the period. At the center of our comprehensive thematic exhibition on Viennese modernism (1890-1910) stand renowned ornamental paintings by Gustav Klimt and erotic figurative depictions by Egon Schiele and the young Oskar Kokoschka, supplemented by works by further artists, architects, furniture designers, and artisans of the Secession and Wiener Werkstätte. The close cooperation among these artists reflected a new, comprehensive definition of art, that of the gesamtkunstwerk, which would subsequently be developed by the Bauhaus and De Stijl movement
