Episodes
Dali’s cryptic painting is based on a picture executed by Millet. The famous surrealist transformed the idyllic landscape into a scene of horror, filling it with macabre eroticism.
Published 10/04/15
Misia Natanson was Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec’s friend and muse. He painted her portrait nine times in all. Find out more about this artist, who descended from an old aristocratic family, and the pianist from Saint Petersburg, who was the patroness of numerous other artists such as Renoir, Vallotton and Bonnard.
Published 09/07/15
Alexandre Calame’s painting is firmly rooted in the romantic tradition. Find out more about his painting of the Eiger and why this artist from western Switzerland traveled to the Bernese Oberland.
Published 08/02/15
The composition of Louis Moilliet’s richly colored painting is highly sophisticated. Find out more about this artist, who was born in Bern, and very unjustly destined to be overshadowed by his friends Paul Klee and August Macke. He accompanied them on a trip to Tunisia in 1914.
Published 07/05/15
Find out more about Chaim Soutine’s expressive painted masterpiece depicting a slaughtered ox. And about the painter too, who was friends with both Modigliani and Chagall. He lived and worked in the La Ruche studio collective in Paris.
Published 06/07/15
Find out more about Johannes Itten, who was born in Emmental and was a Bauhaus teacher and “master.” This abstract painting demonstrates Itten’s theory of color and design in practice, which proved groundbreaking for developments in modern art.
Published 05/03/15
Despite its asymmetry, Piet Mondrian's painting emanates harmony and serenity. Find out more about why the Dutch artist decided to compose only with rectangles and black lines in his paintings. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Published 04/05/15
Max Ernst has the sun set in a mysterious, nocturnal forest landscape. Find out in what way this artwork is relevant to the artist's childhood. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Published 03/09/15
Hans Arp and his wife Sophie Taeuber-Arp produced a number of artworks together. Find out in the video how the richly contrasting pictures mirror the relationship between the two artists. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Published 02/01/15
Adolf Wölfli, who spent many years of his life in the Waldau psychiatric clinic near Bern, created a universe of his own in drawings and writings. The wealth of lines, patterns, musical notation and script is literally mesmerizing to look at. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Published 01/04/15
Find out more about why John the Baptist rebuked Herod, king of Judaea, and why the unknown painter who executed the Bernese John the Baptist Altar is called the "Carnation Master." From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Published 12/07/14
On his last trip to Wales, the English painter Alfred Sisley executed a series of views of the coastline. The paintings leave an impression of eternity and, at the same time, express the singularity of the moment. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern Collection.
Published 11/02/14
« Fruit Harvest » clearly demonstrates the extent to which the artist, who was born in Solothurn in1868, engaged with the trends of his era. Amiet created a sgraffito of an apple harvest for the main façade of the building in 1936, long after this painting was completed. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 10/03/14
Learn more about the artistic credo of Henri Matisse and about the woman who served Matisse as a model for several years. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 09/05/14
Immerse yourself in this great work of Rothko and the world of Abstract Expressionism. Learn how the artist succeeded to establish "a consummated experience between picture and onlooker". From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 08/04/14
Pierre Bonnard's most common motifs are brightly lit gardens and landscapes, colourful still lifes and initmate female nudes. The woman relaxing and dozing in the deckchair represents his muse, life partner and future wife Marthe. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 07/04/14
Alberto Giacometti is one of the most renowned sculptors of the 20th century. His "Woman from Venice I" is a figure full of contradictions: on the one hand she is upright and self-assured, but on the other she is fragile and vulnerable; her feet anchored on the ground, timeless yet contemporary, she stands for the individual that human beings by definition embody. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 06/02/14
The artist found the artistic inspiration for his works in his jewish-russian background. Find out more about this painting, very likely dedicated to his fiancé. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 05/02/14
Wassily Kandinsky, born 1866 in Russia, was a painter, graphic artist and art theoretician. Using strong contrasts in shape and color, Kandinsky makes the disjointedness of the period before the First World War visible. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 04/07/14
Due to his colorful and visionary paintings Joan Miró was one of the most popular artists of the 20th century. Learn more about Miró's work of art and why the technique of collage was so important to him.From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 02/28/14
This painting depicts the second Unspunnen Festival, which took place on 17. August 1808. The Artist attended the Festival in the Bernese Oberland in company with Madame de Stael who is standing arm in arm with an elegantly dressed gentleman in the centre of the picture. Can you find the artist herself in the painting ? From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 01/31/14
Stauffer-Bern often drew and painted from photographic templates. His primary artistic concerns were to depict nature as a source and to create realistic representations of his motifs. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 01/03/14
August Macke was one of the renowned expressonist artists. In the year our picture was painted, he was living in Bonn, joined the "Blue Rider" group of artists in Munich and visited the painter Robert Delaunay in Paris with Franz Marc. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 11/29/13
Learn more about how Odysseus outwitted Achilles and also why the artist Joseph Werner was among the most important painters and sparkling personalities in 17th-century Bern. From the podcast series featuring highlights of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection.
Published 11/17/13