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Installation view of Philippe Parreno, membrane<\/i>2023, with Fujiko Nakatani, Untitled<\/i>2024, as part of the Summer Exhibition at the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen\/Basel, 2024. \u00a9 Philippe Parreno and Fujiko Nakaya. Photo by Marc Niedermann. Courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Summer in Switzerland means one thing: Basel is getting ready to welcome art lovers from all over the world. Art Basel 2024 will take place from June 13 to 16, and there will be plenty of action, but there are other places in Basel that are just as exciting. In addition to the Messeplatz, the art fair is also a great opportunity to experience art in the city, and Zurich is just an hour away by train, where the Zurich Art Weekend will take place from June 7 to 9. <\/p>\n
This year, as part of Art Basel\u2019s Parcours section, public art installations curated by Stefanie Hessler of the Swiss Institute will line Clarastra\u00dfe along the Rhine, bringing contemporary art outdoors. While there\u2019s a lot to see at the fair itself, there\u2019s even more to see in Basel if you step outside the fair and into its museums and galleries. <\/p>\n
Here, we’ve picked 10 museum and gallery exhibitions that are worth leaving the booth to see.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
“When We See Us. A Century of Black Images in Painting”<\/h2>\nKunstmuseum Basel<\/h3>\nEnds October 27<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n\n
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Zandile Tshabalala, Two Reclining Women<\/i>2020. \u00a9 Zandile Tshabalala Studio. Courtesy of the Maduna Collection <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
Curator Tandazani Dhlakama and Chief Curator Koyo Kouoh of the Zeitz MOCAA in Cape Town have curated this comprehensive exhibition, which explores how artists on the African continent and in the diaspora have used their life experiences as themes in their art. <\/p>\n
The exhibition features works by 156 artists, including Romare Bearden, Esiri Erheriene-Essi, YoYo Lander, Scherezade Garcia and Pamela Phatsimo Sunstrum, and is divided into six different themes: “Everyday,” “Joy and Carnival,” “Rest,” “Sensibility,” “Spirit,” and “Victory and Liberation.” The exhibition’s title was inspired in part by When they see us<\/em>As part of Ava DuVernay\u2019s documentary series on the Central Park Five, the exhibition explores how black artists depict their own subjectivity, and in the process offers a diverse perspective on black lives themselves. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n
Hauser & Wirth<\/h3>\nAs of July 13<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Wilhelm Hammershoi, Double portrait of the artist and his wife seen through a mirror. The Cottage at Spurvesquejur<\/i>1911. Courtesy of a private collection.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n
The newly opened Hauser & Wirth Basel gallery is presenting a solo exhibition of work by the Danish artist Vilhelm Hammersh\u00f8i. Curated by Dr. Felix Kramer, the historical exhibition features 16 works by the 19th-century artist, capturing the interiors of Copenhagen buildings and the cityscape of London at the turn of the century. Inspired by Dutch Old Masters such as Johannes Vermeer, Hammersh\u00f8i uses the dark, neutral colours of the Danish Golden Age to create moody works with a particular focus on light: works that require quiet reflection. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Summer Exhibition<\/h2>\nFondation Beyeler<\/h3>\nAs of August 11<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Installation view of the Fondation Beyeler summer exhibition, Riehen\/Basel, 2024. \u00a9 2024 ProLitteris Zurich. Photo by Stephane Borel. Courtesy of the Fondation Beyeler. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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At the heart of this summer exhibition is Connections, an experimental project that aims to transform the museum and its surrounding gardens into a haven for contemporary art. Creating interrelationships between individual works from the museum\u2019s collection and newly commissioned paintings, sculptures, films and installations, the exhibition features work by 30 contributors, including painters Michael Armitage and Marlene Dumas, as well as many conceptual artists such as Frida Escobedo, Peter Fischli, Koo Jeong A, Cildo Meireles, Rirkrit Tiravanija and Adri\u00e1n Villar Rojas. In partnership with the LUMA Foundation, and with Philippe Parreno, Tino Seghal and Precious Okomoyon joining the curatorial team, this ambitious and all-encompassing exhibition is conceived as a \u201cliving organism that is constantly changing and transforming.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Kunsthalle Basel<\/h3>\nJune 7 – September 1<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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Toyin Ojih Odutola, installation view of \u201cIl\u00e9 Oriaku\u201d at Kunsthalle Basel, 2024. Photo: Philipp Hanger. Courtesy of Kunsthalle Basel.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Housed in a stunning 19th-century neoclassical building in the heart of Basel\u2019s cultural district, the gallery is renowned for hosting the first comprehensive institutional exhibition of internationally renowned artists in Switzerland. This includes Nigerian-American artist Toyin Ojih Odutola, whose new body of work shapes rich narratives around black characters. Ojih Odutola\u2019s textured portraits layer pastels, pencil, charcoal, and graphite, capturing a uniquely distorted beauty, as if viewed through water. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Bernheim, Zurich<\/h3>\nJune 7 – July 26<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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In two exhibitions in Zurich (the other, Rumours, is at Mendes Wood DM in S\u00e3o Paulo), Ebecho Muslimova\u2019s series of drawings depict the artist\u2019s alter ego, Fatebe, in flat, cartoonish lines. The iconic character often finds himself in twisted, surreal situations that imagine desire as a Goya-esque grotesque amidst skyscrapers and modern urban domestic life. In her joyful, irreverent paintings, Muslimova presents a vision of a free, playful female body.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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Henze and Kettler Galleries<\/h3>\nAs of August 17<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n\n
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While formal portraiture previously required long periods of sitting, artists began to adopt new approaches to depicting the nude in the 20th century. In particular, the group of artists known as Die Br\u00fccke implemented the “quarter-hour nude” technique, requiring models to pose for less than 15 minutes. Their unique compositions, which emphasized the artist’s own impression rather than physical reality, continue to influence abstract depictions of the nude to this day. Featuring paintings by George Grosz and Georg Baselitz, watercolors by Emil Nolde, and abstract sculptures by Karl Hartung, this exhibition explores figurative depictions of the human figure, using the body as a conduit to explore the human condition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n