Winter in Switzerland: Gstaad, St. Moritz and Zurich

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 to give visitors a unique insight into this specific chapter of one of the most important artists of the 20th Century. The exhibition is supported by Dr. Dr. Dieter Buchhart, who has written an essay for the catalog, and Dr. Anna Karina Hofbauer, internationally renowned curators and Basquiat experts.

Gstaad

Le Grand Bellevue Gstaad presents seven new paintings by Rita Ackermann, in partnership with Hauser & Wirth. From the outset of her career, Ackermann has made works in dialogue with other artists. These new site-specific paintings take as a point of departure Ferdinand Hodler’s philosophy of parallelism. The result of Ackermann’s engagement with the Swiss master is a monumental new frieze work, ‘The Ecstasy of Leaving the Exile, I-VII’ (2023), consisting of seven individual paintings, on view for the first time in Gstaad.

Collaborating with the Ciné Theater in Gstaad, the CinemArt film series will once again take place this winter from 5 January to 23 February 2024. The selection of films about contemporary art gives unique insights into the work of important international artists including Gerhard Richter, Philip Guston, Dora Maar, Fabio Mauri, Frida Kahlo, the Giacometti family and many more.

The Vieux Chalet, the gallery’s home in Gstaad since 2015, is open by appointment only. Email us if you would like to visit.

Zurich

‘Fausto Melotti. Jewelry,’ the first comprehensive survey of the Italian artist’s jewelry oeuvre, organized in collaboration with the Melotti Foundation, is on view at our gallery on Bahnhofstrasse. The exhibition will highlight his meticulously crafted jewelry from the 1960s, ‘70s and early ‘80s, featuring exceptional creations in gold, silver and brass, complemented by a focused selection of sculptures in the same materials.

On view at Zurich, Limmatstrasse is ‘Lorna Simpson,’ the artist’s first solo exhibition at the gallery in Switzerland, which showcases new pieces from her Special Character series. First unveiled in 2019, the Special Character series superimposes women’s faces from fashion and wig ads found in the pages of Ebony magazine, revealing, through repetition the reinforcement of stereotypes in the everyday imagery we consume.

The breadth of New York-born, Swiss-raised artist Cathy Josefowitz’s (1956 – 2014) creative output will be on view in the solo exhibition ‘Release’—the artist’s first in Zurich—opening this January at Limmatstrasse. Focusing on her compelling progression of the figure across four decades, from the 1970s to her later shift towards abstraction, many works will be on view for the first time.