Collection Highlights

For a long time the Alps have been depicted as either dramatically elevated or idyllically transfigured, later also as extremely naturalistic. Ferdinand Hodler's (1853-1918) portrayal in his 'Genfersee mit Savoyerbergen breaks away from that tradition. The painting possesses a powerful frontal effect without any graded sense of depth, in an almost flat, unemotional representation of the scene. There is a complete lack of detail or reference to people. The range of colour is restrained and the picture consists of basically four bluey grey bands of colour going across. The strong, abstract manner in which the landscape is portayed is synonymous with nature being something monumental or eternal.

Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899) is famed for being a moderniser of Alpine painting. He overcame the lofty sublimation and the idealised transfiguration of nature in art. Segantini was Italian but moved to Graubünden in 1886, first to Savognin, then to Maloja. His response to the atmosphere of the mountains with its intensive light gave rise to a new approach to painting. He laid in pure colour in pasty brush strokes as thin as thread and so close together and parallel to each other, that the individual colours came together as a mixed hue only in the eye of the beholder (Divisionism). In addition he is considered one of the leading Symbolists of the fin de siècle.

One of the key features of Alberto Giacometti's portraits (1901-1966), is the close relationship with and the intense study of the personality of whomever he portrayed. In the 1950's, after many preliminary attempts at drawing and modelling Alberto Giacometti starts to form figures which appear flat from the side and elongated in height. As the eyes of the observer pass over the uneven surface of the sculpture they are concentrated with ever increasing intensity on the area around the eyes where the innermost nature of the object is revealed. Amongst others Alberto used his brother as a model, his wife Annette as well as his Parisian friends.

Albert Müller (1897-1926), an exponent of the expressionist 'Rot-Blau' group, in one particular work depicts his wife as a prisoner: by means of an accentuated diagonal composition there emerges a rigid framework which acts to constrict her body. The strong colours - predominantly blue, red and its complementing green - together with the pointed angled design, heighten the uneasiness of the surroundings and reflect the woman's inner melancholic mood. Even the window on the right offers no view of a better future. Pensive, her face showing no expression and hands placed in her lap Anna seems to have given in to her fate. Without any show of emotion Albert Müller captures his wife, who suffered from exhaustion. She died in 1927 from typhoid shortly after Albert Müller's death.

As an important exponent of Fantastic Figuration HR Giger (*1940) held one of the most non-conformist positions in Swiss art until the mid-70s. He thematised birth trauma and claustrophobic fears, the erotic, but also torture and death with stark naturalistic precision in monochrome hues. Giger evokes horror with everyday objects such as an ordinary bathtub. On the other hand he recognised a “mechanical-erotic act” in the work of refuse disposal service men. He creates nightmarish visions by isolating the subject and by focussing on the sinister abyss.

Pascale Wiedemann (*1966), uses her favourite types of clothes, preserved in resin, in order to reflect upon herself with irony and sensitivity. Just as the traditional self portrait is a metaphorical representation of the artist, Pascale Wiedemann similarly uses her clothes to characterise herself, for clothes are like a second skin and closely connected to the work and nature of the person. They are seen as an expression of identity and reflect a person's station and sense of creativity. The T-shirt and the skirt have a history which is very much the same as the history of the wearer - the whole history carefully recorded and bound up in the work 'Selbstportrait' (Self-Portrait).

In her series Delete Zilla Leutenegger (*1968) shows small women performing their daily tasks of cleaning, vacuuming, ironing, and in the case of 'Delete 5' in the Bündner Kunstmuseum, beating carpets. The diligent little female figure looks like an animated drawing. It is based, however, on a video sequence, which was edited accordingly. It seems as though the pink colour was being struck off the exhibition wall by the projected figure’s incessant beating. The cleansed white circle thus represents the interface of an appealing link between real space and immaterial image.