The city of Basel has loads of museums: 40 for a population of just 165,000. But they get plenty of visits due to the huge number of tourists that are drawn to the city, which is one of the art capitals of Europe.
It also attracts hordes of arts and museum professionals during the Art Basel fair it holds each year for a week in June. And there is space-age architecture around every street corner, including a plethora of knock-out buildings by Swiss starchitects Herzog and De Meuron.
With such massive investment in the arts and a commitment to constructing striking architecture, it’s not surprising that there’s been colossal expenditure on a state-of-the-art extension for the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Housing a collection of 4,000 paintings, sculptures, installations and videos, as well as 300,000 drawings and prints from seven centuries worth of art, the Kunstmuseum can now dedicate its old building to historic artworks. Its 1980s extension houses contemporary art and the 2016 extension focuses on temporary exhibitions and modern art.
Why did you need a new building?
Bernhard Mendes Bürgi: At the Kunstmuseum we’ve never had enough space, but now we are able to show, for instance, that we have a lot of pieces by Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Frank Stella. We can show our strength in the postwar period, especially in American art, much better because of the new building.
We used to put on temporary exhibitions in the old, main building, so what’s also good about this extension is that we can put these shows on there instead. We don’t have to interfere with the main building, which can now be used purely for the collection.
What’s on show now?
Figurative Pollock, which isn’t just early Jackson Pollock works. Pollock kept returning to figuration throughout his career, even after his famous action painting period where he dripped paint over the canvas. Figuration always stays present in Pollock’s work. The exhibition builds nicely on our strong abstract expressionist collection, and is on show until 22 January.
It’s a striking building. How did you find the architects?
We ran an international competition for architects with experience in the cultural field. Impressively, 125 applied. We then asked 25 of those to come up with a project each, and from then on it was an anonymous competition. There were starchitects in the mix as well as younger players. Amazingly, the winners we picked are from Basel, and they are young: Christ & Gantenbein.
What’s the most inventive bit about the building’s design?
There is a tradition in Basel of town palaces. For example, the first dedicated museum building in the early-19th century was classical in style, with a frieze running round the top as a decorative element more than structural. And this is what Christ & Gantenbein have used ingeniously. They just took that element but combined it with new technology, in this case with LED elements.
What this means is that we can do a lot of different things with our frieze, but it always looks like stone. Recently, we have chosen to write the current exhibition’s title on the facade, but we could even show videos on it if we wanted. I like it static though, so the letters look more sculptural.
How does the new extension add to Basel’s fairly saturated museum and gallery scene?
We are one of the most important institutions in Basel, so it is necessary that we could show the strengths of our collection, while also presenting life-changing exhibitions.
Nowadays, it is important to have this balance between collection and exhibition. So that’s why it was vital for us to extend our facilities, as it has been for other institutions such as the Fondation Beyeler. We hold seven centuries worth of art, which is unique in Basel.
How does the extension fit in with the existing museum building?
I’m delighted that the new building looks so good in its urban situation. It makes different aspects of the surroundings come together well. For example, there is the medieval area of the city with the cathedral around the corner, but more modern parts are in the other direction, and the new building is in the middle.
Christ & Gantenbein did a good job in uniting these different urban aspects and creating a dialogue with the old Kunstmuseum building. The new building doffs its cap to the old building, but also gives the institution unity.
The exhibition spaces I also find innovative. The main building has beautiful galleries – we needed the same high level of quality in the new building to equalise the experience. The new spaces have a contemporary feeling, but still feel calm.
I also like the underground passage that the architects designed to take visitors from one building to the other.
Bernhard Mendes Bürgi is the outgoing director of the Kunstmuseum Basel
Main funder Laurenz Foundation
Architect Christ & Gantenbein
Main contractor Peter Stocker
Construction management FS Architekten
Structural engineering ZPF Ingenieure
Building services Stokar + Partner
Admission Adult, collections only, 16 Swiss Francs (£13); Adult, special exhibitons only, 23 Swiss Francs (£18.50)
www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch
It also attracts hordes of arts and museum professionals during the Art Basel fair it holds each year for a week in June. And there is space-age architecture around every street corner, including a plethora of knock-out buildings by Swiss starchitects Herzog and De Meuron.
With such massive investment in the arts and a commitment to constructing striking architecture, it’s not surprising that there’s been colossal expenditure on a state-of-the-art extension for the Kunstmuseum Basel.
Housing a collection of 4,000 paintings, sculptures, installations and videos, as well as 300,000 drawings and prints from seven centuries worth of art, the Kunstmuseum can now dedicate its old building to historic artworks. Its 1980s extension houses contemporary art and the 2016 extension focuses on temporary exhibitions and modern art.
Why did you need a new building?
Bernhard Mendes Bürgi: At the Kunstmuseum we’ve never had enough space, but now we are able to show, for instance, that we have a lot of pieces by Jasper Johns, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Frank Stella. We can show our strength in the postwar period, especially in American art, much better because of the new building.
We used to put on temporary exhibitions in the old, main building, so what’s also good about this extension is that we can put these shows on there instead. We don’t have to interfere with the main building, which can now be used purely for the collection.
What’s on show now?
Figurative Pollock, which isn’t just early Jackson Pollock works. Pollock kept returning to figuration throughout his career, even after his famous action painting period where he dripped paint over the canvas. Figuration always stays present in Pollock’s work. The exhibition builds nicely on our strong abstract expressionist collection, and is on show until 22 January.
It’s a striking building. How did you find the architects?
We ran an international competition for architects with experience in the cultural field. Impressively, 125 applied. We then asked 25 of those to come up with a project each, and from then on it was an anonymous competition. There were starchitects in the mix as well as younger players. Amazingly, the winners we picked are from Basel, and they are young: Christ & Gantenbein.
What’s the most inventive bit about the building’s design?
There is a tradition in Basel of town palaces. For example, the first dedicated museum building in the early-19th century was classical in style, with a frieze running round the top as a decorative element more than structural. And this is what Christ & Gantenbein have used ingeniously. They just took that element but combined it with new technology, in this case with LED elements.
What this means is that we can do a lot of different things with our frieze, but it always looks like stone. Recently, we have chosen to write the current exhibition’s title on the facade, but we could even show videos on it if we wanted. I like it static though, so the letters look more sculptural.
How does the new extension add to Basel’s fairly saturated museum and gallery scene?
We are one of the most important institutions in Basel, so it is necessary that we could show the strengths of our collection, while also presenting life-changing exhibitions.
Nowadays, it is important to have this balance between collection and exhibition. So that’s why it was vital for us to extend our facilities, as it has been for other institutions such as the Fondation Beyeler. We hold seven centuries worth of art, which is unique in Basel.
How does the extension fit in with the existing museum building?
I’m delighted that the new building looks so good in its urban situation. It makes different aspects of the surroundings come together well. For example, there is the medieval area of the city with the cathedral around the corner, but more modern parts are in the other direction, and the new building is in the middle.
Christ & Gantenbein did a good job in uniting these different urban aspects and creating a dialogue with the old Kunstmuseum building. The new building doffs its cap to the old building, but also gives the institution unity.
The exhibition spaces I also find innovative. The main building has beautiful galleries – we needed the same high level of quality in the new building to equalise the experience. The new spaces have a contemporary feeling, but still feel calm.
I also like the underground passage that the architects designed to take visitors from one building to the other.
Bernhard Mendes Bürgi is the outgoing director of the Kunstmuseum Basel
Project data
Cost 100m Swiss Francs (£83m)Main funder Laurenz Foundation
Architect Christ & Gantenbein
Main contractor Peter Stocker
Construction management FS Architekten
Structural engineering ZPF Ingenieure
Building services Stokar + Partner
Admission Adult, collections only, 16 Swiss Francs (£13); Adult, special exhibitons only, 23 Swiss Francs (£18.50)
www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch