KUNSTMUSEUM BASEL
First City Public Art Museum and Rodin’s Burghers
Basel’s Kunstmuseum (the city’s central art museum) began as a private collection by a 17th Century Basel lawyer named Basilius Amerbach, purchased by the city in 1661, and becoming the first public municipal museum. This beginning gave the museum a distinctive collection of Renaissance art, mostly of the German style, now holding the world’s largest collection of works by the Holbein family an major works by masters like Lucas Cranach the Elder, the principal documentor of Martin Luther, Konrad Witz, and Matthias Grünewald and Martin Schongauer.
As a world class art institution the museum has a full permanent collection of major artists of all periods, with paintings by Basel-born Arnold Böcklin featured among the highlights of the 19th-century among the French impressionists and German expressionists, with the 20th-century represented by the Cubism of Picasso, Braque and Léger as well as Constructivism, Dadaism and Surrealism, and American art since 1950. The museum also houses a collection of prints and drawings of the Kupferstichkabinett by artists of the Upper Rhine region between the 15th and 17th Centuries through the 21st century.
One of the curious unavoidable features of the Kunstmuseum upon arriving to explore the collection or meet a friend is the intriguing and haunting sculpture in the courtyard. The famous “Burghers of Calais” by Auguste Rodin (see Rodin Museum Paris), in the courtyard of the Kunstmuseum, is based on a story from the 100 Years War when England’s King Edward III besieged the city of Calais in 1347 after his victory at the Battle of Crecy. France’s King Philip ordered the city to hold out to the point of starvation. After a year, Edward offered to spare the city if six leaders walked out of the gates with ropes around their necks prepared to be executed, but his Queen, Philippa of Hainaut, a cousin of the French king, interceded, convincing her husband their deaths would be a bad omen for the birth of the child they were expecting and they were spared (see Knaresborough). This dynamic work like spectral bodies frozen in a black lava flow never fails to attract the visitor to indulge in a photo opportunity with the tormented figures.
In addition to the permanent collection, the museum’s principal focus is on regular major temporary exhibits on a broad range of themes, drawn from the permanent collection vaults or assembled for touring exhibits; examples from the origins of the early paintings of French Impressionist Renoir, a retrospective of Basel based collections of Picasso, Portraiture of the 15th and 16th Centuries, to illustrations of Renaissance Musicians.
An extension to the Kunstmuseum is currently under construction to accommodate special exhibitions and enable the museum to present valuable works from the public art collection in a contemporary setting. The new section will feature a spacious underground tunnel link between the old building and the new under Dufourstrasse. The extension is expected to open in 2017.
Visiting the Basel Kunstmuseum
The museum is open from 10am to 6pm, Tuesday through Sunday, closed on Monday. Admission process range from 15 CHF for Adults for the permanent collection with special exhibit pricing of 21 CHF. Teenagers, students and disabled are 8 CHF for special exhibits including the permanent collection. Admission is Free with a Swiss Museums Pass (see Swiss Rail Pass). The Basel Kunstmuseum is located at St. Alban-Graben 16, a short distance from the Rhine River and, with street trams running past, (Tram No 2 from the Bahnhof, Tram Line No 15, or City Bus Line No 50) and easily reached by a walk of a few blocks from the old town. There is an onsite restaurant with outdoor tables in the courtyard.© Bargain
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Kunstmuseum Basel
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