Ferdinand Hodler – Alberto Giacometti
An Encounter

21 April - 19 August 2018 | Beim Stadthaus

Ferdinand Hodler, Selbstbildnis, 1912
Kunst Museum Winterthur, Geschenk der Erben von Dr. Theodor Reinhart, 1919

Alberto Giacometti, Buste de Diego, 1955
Kunst Museum Winterthur, Depositum der Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1976
© 2017 Succession Alberto Giacometti / ProLitteris, Zürich

Ferdinand Hodler, Blick in die Unendlichkeit, 1913/1914–1916
Kunst Museum Winterthur

Alberto Giacometti, Monte del Forno, um 1923
Privatbesitz
© Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2018, ProLitteris, Zurich

Ferdinand Hodler, Landschaft bei Champéry, um 1912/1916
Kunst Museum Winterthur, Stiftung Oskar Reinhart

Alberto Giacometti, Femme de Venise VIII, 1956
Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, Zürich
© Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2018, ProLitteris, Zurich

This exhibition is the first encounter of the two icons of 20th century Swiss art in a single show: Ferdinand Hodler and Alberto Giacometti.
2018 marks the 100th anniversary of Ferdinand Hodler’s death – a reason to honour the oeuvre of this outstanding Swiss painter at the beginning of modernism and to approach his work with a radically different view. In a dialogue with Alberto Giacometti, one of the most important sculptors of the 20th century, Hodler is not negotiated in the context of his own era, but re-examined completely. Whereas Hodler’s impressive depictions of Alpine landscapes maintain a secure position in Helvetic iconography, Giacometti’s figures are exemplary of post-war existentialism. Their juxtaposition reveals astonishing pictural parallels, for instance in the tentative search for form in the drawings, but especially in the questioning of human existence. Therefore, the artists’ works are examined in respect to their content as well as their relevance for future generations – and thus also for us today.

Curators: Konrad Bitterli, David Schmidhauser

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