120 selected works from the Berg Collection, by German artists from 1968 until the present day, will be in the Museum of Art Lucerne under the title ‘Fireworks over Alexanderplatz’, taken from a painting by Hödicke. The exhibition will include chiefly paintings, but also some works on paper and a small number of sculptures.

The exhibition is curated by Dr Hans Günter Golinski, Director of the Bochum Museum, and Peter Fischer, Director of the Museum of Art Lucerne, and there will be an accompanying catalogue. It will first be shown (17.11.2007-2.1.2008) in the Bochum Museum.

While some of the collection’s paintings, such as those by Graubner, Hödicke, Koberling, Lüpertz or Middendorf have by now become prominent key works in new German painting, and have become part of the general visual memory, in the work of artists such as Chevalier, Finkeldei, Wendisch and others visitors will be able to discover a further development of figurative painting in Germany which has hitherto been received in Switzerland either inadequately or not at all.

With video installations and video tapes by Swiss artists, some from the store-rooms of the artists’s studios, the exhibition focuses upon the beginnings of video art in Switzerland and its developments until the end of the 1980s. The presentation lays particular emphasis on authenticity and on a comprehensive experience of the works’ spatial aspects, the way in which they act as installations, and also their acoustic qualities. The reflection of performance practice seeks to intensivy an awareness of this transient mdium. At the same time it takes as its theme a historical era of video art which is of great importance for contemporary discourse.

Participating artists
Hanspeter Ammann, René Bauermeister, Marie-José Burki, Geneviève Calame, Chérif & Silvie Defraoui, Jürg Egli, Alexander Hahn, Klara Kuchta, Eric Lanz, Urs Lüthi, Christian Marclay, Dieter Meier, Gérald Minkoff, Guido Nussbaum, Muriel Olesen, Jean Otth, Pipilotti Rist, Janos Urban, Hannes Vogel, Anna Winteler

This exhibition provides the first glimpse of the contents of the Ringier Collection, and gives an impression of its great range. By singling out particular areas of emphasis, “Blasted Allegories” shows film installations by Rodney Graham, rooms of drawings by Matt Mullican, Peter Fischli & David Weiss’s “Fragenprojektion”, an spatial ensembles by artists including Urs Fischer, Ugo Rondinone and Karen Kilimnik. It also concentrates above all on works in “quiet” tones. The works on show, numbering more than 100 in all artistic media, move between the poles of narration from everyday life and the media, circle around fantasies and fictions, take as their subject rules and infringements. At the same time they are always concerned with the “image” in all its forms and its huge significance for the present day.

The approximately 250 works owned by the Bernhard Eglin Foundation, founded with a legacy by Lucerne Art Society in 1933, are among the most important components of the collection of the Museum of Art Lucerne. Thanks to the Foundation, in the Museum’s early years it was able to put together a significant collection of Swiss art. From Füssli via Anker, Zünd and Hodler to Vallotton, many major Swiss artists are represented with important works.

A renewed burst of activity coincided with the involvement of art collector Viktor Lüthy. Active in the Foundation from 1983 until his death in 1998, when he was President, he placed the focus on abstract, modern Swiss art between 1910 and 1960, which had until then been rather under-represented in Lucerne. Thanks to Lüthy’s wide network of contacts, notable acquisitions were regularly made possible by the support of private individuals, firms and institutions. Names now ranged from Taeuber-Arp and Oppenheim via Bill, Fedier and Iseli to Federle and Armleder. Recently, under the presidency of Karl Bühlmann, works of international contemporary art have also been acquired.

The exhibition has two goals: on the one hand it shows over 100 first-class works, and clearly demonstrates the sense of quality with which the members of the Foundation, along with the directors of the Museum, have acquired new works, while on the other it would like to revitalise the Bernhard Eglin Foundation, accumulate capital for the Foundation and also – in line with the Founder’s vision of a top-flight Lucerne museum collection – make it available to receive donations and legacies.

The Belgian artist Anne-Mie van Kerckhoven (b. 1951) has, over a period of over three decades, used the medium of drawing to investigate the explosive relationships between gender, technology and representation. She is also seen as be a pioneer of cyber-feminism and a cunning multimedia artist. From a female point of view she puts her sights on society, which still tries to limit the role of women to that of sex object. In this respect she adopts a detached rather than a moralistic attitude towards systems of perception which, like a scientist, she deconstructs, but at the same time always connects with her own life, her ‘brain.life in motion’. The exhibition will include films from 1975 until 2007 as well as a representative selection of drawings.

Anyone familiar with the work of the Lucerne painter Leopold Häfliger (1929-1989) will have their own opinion. His Fasnacht (carnival) paintings in particular are a point of contention, delighting some and horrifying others. But Leopold Häfliger, little known outside Lucerne, was not just a society painter, but a passionate artist who absorbed the work of his contemporaries with enthusiasm, pleasure and skill. This concentrated and purpose­fully staged exhibition will provide an opportunity to revisit Häfliger’s painting.

For over thirty years Hiroshi Sugimoto (born Tokyo 1948, based in the USA since 1970) has been making thoroughly fascinating, enigmatic photographs. They free photography from its commitment to reality, and locate it within an artistic reflection on time, transcience and memory. The spirituality of the Buddhist religion and Japanese aesthetics are just as influential on his work as the ideas of Marcel Duchamp and the experience of American minimal and conceptual art. The artist has designed the exhibition specially for the local conditions of the Museum of Art Lucerne. It constitutes his largest retrospective in Europa so far, and includes 70 works from all his important series.

The traditional annual exhibition shows current works by artists from Central Switzerland. The selection is made by a specialist jury on the basis of documents supplied by the artists wishing to participate.

Das Hans Erni-Museum auf dem Gelände des Verkehrshauses der Schweiz in Luzern zeigt auf mehreren Etagen mit über 300 Werken einen Querschnitt durch das umfassende Werk des renommierten Schweizer Malers, Grafikers und Plastikers. Der transparente Bau ist Sitz und lebendiges Zentrum der Hans Erni-Stiftung, die zum 70. Geburtstag des Künstlers 1979 gegründet wurde. Der Zweck der Stiftung besteht darin, das thematisch vielfältige Schaffen Hans Ernis einer breiten Öffentlichkeit zugänglich zu machen - an einem Ort, der gleichzeitig eine Stätte kultureller Begegnung ist. Die Ausstellung führt Ernis zentrales Anliegen, das sein gesamtes Schaffen prägt, deutlich vor Augen: Er will unsere durch Wissenschaft und Technik vielfach verfremdete Welt über die künstlerische Interpretation begreiflicher machen.

Die Schenkung der mit Picasso befreundeten Familie Rosengart an die Stadt Luzern, anlässlich ihres 800-Jahr-Jubiläums 1978, umfasst eine Reihe grossformatiger Gemälde und eine Eisenblech-Skulptur, sowie Gouachen, Handzeichnungen, Keramiken und Originalgrafiken, und ist heute eine der weltweit wichtigsten Sammlungen von Spätwerken Pablo Picassos (1881-1973).

Seit 1992 beherbergt das Picasso-Museum auch die Ausstellung "Picasso, fotografiert von David Douglas Duncan". Als einziges Museum der Welt kann es diese Sammlung sehr persönlicher Fotografien des berühmten amerikanischen Fotografen zeigen. Die rund 200 meisterhaften Aufnahmen geben aus nächster Nähe Einblick ins Leben Picassos und vermögen dem noch Suchenden eine Tür zu dessen Spätwerken zu öffnen.

Untergebracht ist die Picasso Sammlung im Am-Rhyn-Haus, einem der schönsten historischen Gebäude der Stadt, das 1616-18 von Schultheiss Walthard Am-Rhyn, anschliessend an das Rathaus, im Renaissance-Stil erbaut wurde und 1946 in den Besitz der Stadt Luzern überging.

The Rosengart Collection was originally the private art collection of father-and-daughter Siegfried and Angela Rosengart. The collection has never previously been made available to the public in its entirety, though individual works have been regularly lent to major exhibitions.

The Collection comprises well over 200 works by 23 different “Classic Modernist” artists. These include 125 works by Paul Klee and some 50 by Pablo Picasso. Other artists represented include (in alphabetical order) Bonnard, Braque, Cézanne, Chagall, Dufy, Kandinsky, Laurens, Léger, Marini, Matisse, Miró, Modigliani, Monet, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouault, Seurat, Signac, Soutine, Utrillo and Vuillard.

10. März bis 6. Mai 2007
Nils Nova
Der Luzerner Künstler Nils Nova zeigt seine neuesten Arbeiten im Museum im Bellpark. Seine raumgreifenden Installationen verändern das Museum und machen die Räumlichkeiten des Museums neu erfahrbar. Nils Nova (*1970) lebt und arbeitet in Luzern.

26. Mai bis 8. Juli 2007
Fernschau
Die Fotografie diente um 1900 als Instrument, um den Leuten die Welt im Bild näher zu bringen. Ein Aargauer Verein sammelte Fotografien aus aller Welt und machte diese der intere- ssierten Öffentlichkeit in einem "Fotomuseum" zugänglich. Die Absicht war, Gewerbetreibende, die im Export- geschäft tätig waren, auf die neuen Märkte vorzu- bereiten. Dieser wunderbare Bestand an alten Fotografien wird vom Forum Schlossplatz aufgear- beitet und in einer Ausstellung Ende 2006 zu- gänglich gemacht. Das Museum im Bellpark über- nimmt die Ausstellung und zeigt das Material in der Zentralschweiz. Zur Ausstellung erscheint eine Publikation im Verlag "hier + jetzt".

18. August bis 11. November 2007
Eduard Spelterini: Pionier
der Flugfotografie
Eduard Spelterini ist einer der bedeutendsten Ballonfahrer und gleichzeitig ein wichtiger Pionier der Luftbildfotografie. Die Ausstellung stellt Spelterini als Fotografen vor und würdigt sein Werk. Die Ausstellung zeigt Bestände aus dem Verkehrshaus Luzern, das die noch erhaltenen Ne- gative des Fotografen besitzt. Die Ausstellung ist insofern eine Zusammenarbeit zwischen Museum im Bellpark und Verkehrshaus der Schweiz. Der Zürcher Verlag Scheidegger und Spiess veröffent- licht eine Publikation über das fotografische Schaffen von Spelterini.