Hodler – Segantini – Giacometti: Masterpieces from the Gottfried Keller Foundation at MASI / LAC Lu
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.
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, consists primarily of nineteenth and twentieth century paintings, with significant incursions into previous centuries documenting some of Switzerland’s greatest artists.
Giovanni Segantini: "Nature, Life, Death" triptyque at Segantini museum, St. Moritz - photo: FotoFlury
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
La Vita 1896‒1899 Olio su tela Museo Segantini, St. Moritz
La Natura 1897‒1899 Olio su tela Museo Segantini, St. Moritz
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.
La Morte 1896‒1899 Olio su tela Museo Segantini, St. Moritz
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.
Alberto Giacometti Buste d’Annette (Busto di Annette) 1964 Bronzo
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), La Vergine dei Mercedari (1620-25) by Giovanni Serodine, and Dame in Pelz (1919) by Cuno Amiet.
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.
During 2019, the MASI in cooperation with the Aargauer Kunsthaus presents 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).
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 fees may be found on the Museum’s web site.
MORE INFO ON: www.masilugano.ch www.luganolac.ch
