Winter in Switzerland: St. Moritz, Zurich and Basel

St. Moritz

‘Jean-Michel Basquiat. Engadin’ traces the renowned artist’s connections to the country, which began in 1982 with his first show at Galerie Bruno Bischofberger in Zurich, returning over a dozen times to St. Moritz, Zurich and Appenzell, as well as other places in Switzerland. The Engadin region in particular continued to fascinate Basquiat long after his return to New York, resulting in a body of work that captures his impressions of the Swiss Alpine landscape and culture through the lens of his highly distinctive and personal artistic language.

The exhibition will be accompanied by a catalog from Hauser & Wirth Publishers, giving the visitors a unique insight into this specific chapter of one of the most important artists of the 20th Century.

Roth Bar in St. Moritz will also reopen on 14 December and will be open Monday to Sunday 11 am – 9 pm. First conceived by Dieter Roth in the early 1970s, ‘the bar’ is a dynamic and changing installation and is a continuing element in the Roths’ cross-generational practice. The bar, comprised of scavenged materials, embodies a central motif found throughout Dieter Roth’s work. Both bar and studio were central concepts and locales for the work of Dieter Roth. Roth Bar is situated on the ground floor of Hauser & Wirth St. Moritz.

Zurich

‘Judd, LeWitt and Bill. Made by Lehni’ is currently on view at our gallery on Bahnhofstrasse. Founded in Zurich in 1922 by Rudolf Lehni (1885–1956) as a sheet metal workshop, Lehni cultivated contacts with the artistic avant-garde and his workshop would become a meeting point for many artists. Lehni soon became the artist’s collaborator, bringing expertise in metalwork to the creative vision of the artist. One of the first standout partnerships was with the internationally renowned artist Max Bill, who commissioned Lehni to make his famous ‘well-relief’ in 1932.

On view at Hauser & Wirth Zurich, Limmatstrasse until the end of December is ‘Günther Förg. Arbeiten auf Papier / Works on Paper / Oeuvres sur Papier: 1975 – 2009’—the largest survey exhibition of Günther Förg’s works on paper, spanning over 30 years. Förg’s works on paper were an integral part of his multi-disciplinary practice (which comprised drawing, painting, photography and sculpture) and ran parallel to his works on canvas. The artist would often be inspired to paint and draw on paper after experimenting with his large-scale canvases.

Basel

‘Körperlich,’ meaning ‘bodily,’ is a group show of women artists which explores the body’s role in the construction and expression of identity through works by Louise Bourgeois, Maria Lassnig, Meret Oppenheim, Alina Szapocznikow, Irène Zurkinden, Lee Lozano, Hannah Villiger and Carol Rama. Although in this exhibition the emphasis is on the physiognomy of the body and its organs, the feelings portrayed within the works on view are those that emanate from deep inside: love, desire, fear, anger, hysteria—visceral emotions which reveal themselves through bodily expression. This exhibition is on view at our gallery in Basel until 8 February.