Hodler – Segantini – Giacometti

Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana Hodler – Segantini – Giacometti Lugano +41(0)91 815 7971 Masterpieces from the Gottfried Keller Foundation [email protected] www.masilugano.ch 24 March – 28 July 2019 Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano at LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura

Curated byTobia Bezzola and Francesca Benini

Press conference: Friday, 22 March 11:00 Opening: Saturday, 23 March 18:00

Press release Lugano, March 2019 From 24 March through 28 July 2019 Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, in partnership with the Swiss National Museum in Zurich and the Federal Office of Culture, presents a major exhibition of works from the collection of Fondazione Gottfried Keller. The exhibition brings together great masterpieces from the collection stored in Swiss museums, including works by Hodler, Segantini and Giacometti. Almost 60 years after it was last presented to the public, Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana (MASI) hosts masterpieces from Fondazione Gottfried Keller, one of Switzerland’s most important national collections of from twelfth- to twentieth-century Swiss art, now managed by the Federal Office of Culture. The exhibition, curated by director Tobia Bezzola and Francesca Benini, the museum’s scientific partner, consists primarily of nineteenth and twentieth century paintings, with significant incursions into previous centuries documenting some of Switzerland’s greatest artists. The exhibition begins with Giovanni Serodine's La Vergine dei Mercedari (The Virgin of the Mercedari, 1620-1625, Pinacoteca Cantonale Giovanni Züst, Rancate), continuing with important eighteenth-century works by Liotard, Petrini, Wolf, Füssli and Sablet and nineteenth-century works by Calame, Zünd, Böcklin, Koller, Anker, Hodler, Segantini and many more. When Fondazione Gottfried Keller was founded in 1891, Lydia Welti-Escher appointed Arnold Böcklin as a member of the Commission, while painter Albert Anker was appointed by the Federal Council. In the exhibition, the artist from Basil is represented by important works including Die Toteninsel (Isle of the Dead, 1880, Kunstmuseum Basel), a famous example of his evocative painting. The painting was purchased for Kunstmuseum Basel in 1920, along with another masterpiece of Swiss painting, Ferdinand Hodler’s Der Auserwählte (The Chosen One, 1893-94), in storage in the Kunstmuseum in Berne, a painting in which the artist applies the compositional principle based on symmetry that was to become a distinguishing feature of his Symbolist painting. The work is exhibited along with the landscape Abend am Genfersee (Evening on Lake Lemano, 1895, Kunsthaus Zürich), one of Hodler’s favourite subjects for this genre of painting. Giovanni Segantini's famous Alpine Triptych La Natura, La Vita, La Morte (Life, Nature and Death, 1896-1899), kept at Museo Segantini in St. Moritz, will be exhibited south of the Alps for the first time since 1899. The painting was purchased by the Foundation in 1911, allowing the Engadin museum to expand its collection of the artist’s works and make them its main attraction. The triptych will stay on at MASI after the exhibition closes, in the centre of the exhibition Sublime. Luce e paesaggio intorno a Giovanni Segantini (Sublime: Light and landscape around Giovanni Segantini), flanked by important landscape paintings from the MASI collection painted around the same time.

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Works by Meyer-Amden and Auberjonois – the first contemporary artists to appear in the collection, in the sixties – Amiet, Vallotton, Itten and Giacometti take us into another century. In the twentieth century, Felix Vallotton and other artists of his time rediscovered the genre of still life, as demonstrated in a 1914 painting from Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne. The exhibition concludes with a sculpture: Alberto Giacometti's Buste di Annette (Bust of Annette, 1964, Musée d’art et Histoire Genève), in which the woman’s face captures all the energy and motion characteristic of the Swiss sculptor’s work. Finally, the exhibition also includes a number of works from the artistic heritage of the Ticino included in the collections of MASI and other museums in the region. These include two paintings by Filippo Franzoni, Self-portrait (1900-05) and Saleggi di Isolino (1890-95), from the collections of the City of Lugano and the Canton Ticino, respectively; the above-mentioned La Vergine dei Mercedari (1620-25) by Giovanni Serodine, in storage at Pinacoteca Cantonale Giovanni Züst, Rancate; and Dame in Pelz (1919) by Cuno Amiet from Pinacoteca Comunale Casa Rusca in Locarno. At the same time as the exhibition at MASI, between 14 February and 22 April 2019 the Swiss National Museum in Zurich will go over the history of Fondazione Gottfried Keller and the variety of its collection through an exhibition of precious items such as specimens of the goldsmith’s art, paintings on glass, drawings, paintings and sculptures from the twelfth to the twentieth century. With the support of the Swiss Confederation, the exhibitions in Lugano and Zurich commemorate the bicentennial of the birth of Alfred Escher, father of Lydia Welti-Escher, who founded the Foundation, and Gottfried Keller, to whom it is dedicated.

List of artists on exhibit Giovanni Serodine (1594 ca –1630)/ Giuseppe Antonio Petrini (1677–1759)/ Jean-Etienne Liotar (1702–1789)/ Caspar Wolf (1735–1783)/ Johann Heinrich Füssli (1741–1825)/ Jacques Sablet (1749–1803)/ Louis-Léopold Robert (1794-1835)/ Charles Gleyre (1806 -1874)/ Alexandre Calame (1810–1864)/ Albert Anker (1810-1864)/ Barthélemy Menn (1815-1893)/ Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901)/ Robert Zünd (1827-1909)/ Rudolf Keller (1828-1905)/ Frank Buchser (1828-1890)/ Otto Frölicher (1840-1890)/ Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918)/ Filippo Franzoni (1857–1911)/ Giovanni Segantini (1858-1899)/ Albert Welti (1862-1912)/ Félix Vallotton (1865- 1925)/ Giovanni Giacometti (1868-1933)/ Max Buri (1868-1915)/ Cuno Amiet (1868-1961)/ Alice Bailly (1872–1938)/ Réne Auberjonois (1872-1957)/ Adolf Dietrich (1877-1957)/ Otto Meyer-Amden (1885-1933)/ Johannes Itten (1888-1967)/ Albert Müller (1897-1926)/ François Barraud (1899-1934)/ Alberto Giacometti (1901-1966)

Fondazione e Collezione Gottfried Keller Fondazione Gottfried Keller was established in 1890 by Lydia Welti-Escher, daughter and heir to politician, industrial pioneer and railway entrepreneur Alfred Escher. Lydia Welti-Escher left the Swiss Confederation a legacy that included the majority of her assets, making the donation conditional on the purchase of important works of art for Swiss museums. The Foundation is named after family friend Gottfried Keller, the famous Swiss poet and painter. Ever since it was established, the Foundation’s statute has required a Commission of five members, still appointed by the Federal Council, with a four-year mandate. This Commission is entrusted with purchasing artworks, which become the property of the Swiss Confederation and, in the spirit of federalism, are distributed among various different Swiss museums on permanent loan. In its early years, Fondazione Gottfried Keller played a decisive role in preventing the foreign sale of cultural assets and bringing important works back to Switzerland. Today, it continues to work in close collaboration with individual Swiss museums to acquire artworks of significance for the country. Its collection is now one of the most important collections of twelfth to twentieth century Swiss art, including over 6,400 artworks in storage in about 70 museums and 30 other institutions in 23 Swiss Cantons. The collection represents almost all the disciplines and techniques of art and the applied arts, from goldsmithing to photography, and also included a number of buildings, such as the San Giorgio monastery complex in Stein am Rhein and Wülflingen Castle in Winterthur, which have since been transferred to the Confederation.

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Catalogue The exhibitions are accompanied by the publication Capolavori della Fondazione Gottfried Keller, published by Edizioni Casagrande (in Italian) with Scheidegger & Spiess (in German and French), presenting colour images of the works on display with technical information by Heidi Amrein, Francesca Benini, Christian Hörack, Erika Hebeisen, Mylène Ruoss, Christian Weiss and Franz Zelger, as well as greetings from federal councillor Alain Berset, a preface by directors Tobia Bezzola (MASI Lugano) and Andreas Spillmann (Swiss National Museum) and an introduction by the director of the Confederation's Art Collections, Andreas Münch.

Educational activities In addition to the usual free guided tours taking place every Sunday at 11:00 am in Italian and at 12:00 in German, several cultural activities are scheduled throughout the duration of the exhibition in order to involve the audience and turning the visit to the exhibition into an enriching and emotional experience. The programme is available on the website www.edu.luganolac.ch.

Exhibition programme In 2019, the MASI will work on important projects in collaboration with Swiss and international Museums and artists. In addition to Hodler – Segantini – Giacometti. Masterpieces from the Gottfried Keller Foundation , the Museum, in cooperation with the Aargauer Kunsthaus, present a great retrospective regarding Swiss Surrealism (until 16 June 2019). After the exhibition, from 25 August to 10 November 2019, the Museum will present Sublime, a project revolving around the exceptional presence of La Natura, La Vita, La Morte (Nature, Life, Death), the renowned triptyque by Giovanni Segantini, and its connections with a selection of works from the MASI collection. The Museum will also host Swiss artists Franz Gertsch, with a projects curated by himself (from 12 May to 22 September 2019), and Julian Charrierè, with his interdisciplinary project Towards No Earthly Pole (from 8 September 2019 to 05 January 2020); and the American photographer William Wegman, with his first European stage of his latest project Being Human (from 8 September 2019 to 5 January 2020).

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MASI Lugano The Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano represents the point of arrival of an in-depth revision of the cultural policies that led to the merger between the Museo Cantonale d’Arte and the Museo d’Arte di Lugano as a single institution. The museum has two locations: on view at LAC are exhibits aimed at delving deeper into twentieth-century and contemporary art as well as the museum's permanent collection, while Palazzo Reali (temporarily closed for refurbishment) focuses on the history of art in the territory, and the valorization of specific groups in the museum collection. A main partner of MASI Lugano is Credit Suisse, which confirms its historical commitment in favour of art in Lugano.

Current Exhibition Surrealism Switzerland LAC, until 16.06.2019

Forthcoming Exhibitions A Collection in Progress – Nature is what we see Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, from 29.03 to 16.06.2019 Gertsch – Gauguin – Munch Cut in Wood LAC, from 12.05 to 22.09.2019 Sublime Light and landscape around Giovanni Segantini LAC, from 25.08 to 10.11.2019 William Wegman: Being Human LAC, from 08.09.2019 to 05.01.2020 Marisa Merz Collezione Giancarlo e Danna Olgiati, from 22.09.2019 to 12.01.2020 Julian Charrière Towards No Earthly Pole LAC, from 27.10.2019 to 14.03.2020

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Information Location LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura Piazza Bernardino Luini 6 CH - 6901 Lugano

Opening hours Tuesday - Sunday: 10:00 – 18:00 Open until 20:00 on Thursday Closed on Monday

Admission Admission fees and a complete list of discounts may be found on the Museum’s web site.

Buy tickets www.masilugano.ch www.luganolac.ch

Contacts Visitor Services +41 (0)58 866 42 40 [email protected] Guided tours and workshops +41 (0)58 866 4230 [email protected]

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Main Partner MASI Lugano

Founders

Institutional Partner

Scientific Partner

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Press contacts LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura Ufficio comunicazione +41 (0)58 866 4214 [email protected]

French and German-speaking parts of Switzerland and other Countries Neutral Zürich Michelle Nicol +41 79 642 0207 [email protected]

Italy ddl+battage Alessandra de Antonellis +39 339 3637388 [email protected] Margherita Baleni +39 347 4452374 [email protected]

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Captions

01. Albert Anker Kleinkinderschule auf der Kirchenfeldbrücke (I bambini dell’asilo sul ponte Kirchenfeld) 1900 Olio su tela 76 x 127 cm Kunstmuseum Bern

02. Arnold Böcklin Die Toteninsel (L’Isola dei morti) 1880 Tempera su tela 110.9 x 156.4 cm Kunstmuseum Basel © Kunstmuseum Basel Foto: Martin P. Bühler

04. Filippo Franzoni Saleggi di Isolino 1890 - 1895 Olio su tavola 40 x 29.5 cm Museo d'arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano Collezione Cantone Ticino © Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano. Collezione Cantone Ticino

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05. Johann Heinrich Füssli Die Sünde vom Tod verfolgt (Peccato inseguito dalla morte) 1794-1796 Olio su tela 119 x 132 cm Kunsthaus Zürich © Kunsthaus Zürich

07. Ferdinand Hodler Abend am Genfersee (Sera sul Lago Lemano) 1895 Olio su tela 100 x 130 cm Kunsthaus Zürich © Kunsthaus Zürich

08. Ferdinand Hodler Der Auserwählte (L’Eletto) 1893 - 1894 Tempera e olio su tela 219 x 296 cm Kunstmuseum Bern © Kunstmuseum Bern

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09. Veduta del trittico La Natura, La Vita, La Morte di Giovanni Segantini Museo Segantini, St. Moritz © Museo Segantini, St. Moritz Foto: FotoFlury

10. Giovanni Serodine La Vergine dei Mercedari 1620 - 1625 Olio su tela 200 x 131 cm Pinacoteca Züst, Rancate © Pinacoteca cantonale Giovanni Züst Foto: Roberto Pellegrini

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11. Félix Vallotton Nature morte (Natura morta) 1914 OIio su tela 65.5 x 81.3 cm Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne © Musée cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne Foto: Jean-Claude Ducret

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