Switzerland’s museums and art collections are known throughout the world. Among them are the Public Art Collection in Basel and the Oskar Reinhart Foundation in Winterthur. Also major are the art museums of Zurich, Bern (including the Klee Foundation), and Geneva, as well as the Avegg Foundation in Bern (Riggisberg) and the Foundation Martin Bodmer (Geneva-Cologny). The Swiss National Museum in Zurich contains valuable exhibits on history and archaeology. There are also museums of church treasures and ethnological displays.
Before about the mid–1700s, the Swiss, a sober and matter-of-fact people, did not regard art with the passion that some of their neighbors did. As a consequence, Swiss painters were not as prominent as those of Italy and France. Sculpture and painting were secondary to architecture, useful only as embellishments to the major work of art, the building itself.
Among the major Swiss artists are Salomon Gessner (1730–88), who painted landscapes and mythological scenes, and Anton Graff (1736–1813), a portraitist. Johann Heinrich Füssl (1741–1825) studied in England, where he became known as Henry Fuseli; he later was appointed keeper of the Royal Academy in London. He is best remembered for his visionary painting The Nightmare.
Angelica Kauffmann (1741–1807) became the country’s most acclaimed neoclassical painter, depicting allegorical, religious, and mythological themes.
Arnold Böcklin (1827–1901) also became widely known in his time. The subjects of his paintings were either extremely light, even frivolous, or else morbidly depressing, as exemplified by his Island of the Dead.
Ferdinand Hodler (1853–1918) was one of the first really significant people to emerge within the world of Swiss art. Some critics have suggested that he “liberated” Swiss painting, making effective use of color and rhythmic tension. His works are displayed in such museums as the National Museum in Zurich and the Museum of Art and History in Geneva. His gargantuan murals, one of which depicts the Retreat of the Swiss Following the Battle of Marignano, remain among his best-known works.
During World War I, Zurich was the setting for the launching of Dadaism. This nihilistic movement, which lasted from about 1916 to 1922, was influenced by the absurdities and carnage of the war. It was based on deliberate irrationality and the rejection of laws of social organization and beauty.
The most famous artist to come out of Switzerland was Paul Klee (1879–1940). He became a member of the Blaue Reiter, the German expressionist movement, and worked at the Bauhaus in Weimar. His work is characterized by fantasy forms in line and light-toned colors. Klee also combined abstract elements with recognizable images. Among his better-known works are Mask of Fear, Man on a Tightrope, Pastorale, and The Twittering Machine.
The most distinguished sculptor to emerge from Switzerland was Alberto Giacometti (1901–66). His metal figures, as lean and elongated as figures from an El Greco painting, can be seen in museums throughout the world. After 1930, Giacometti became closely associated with the surrealist movement. His sculpture, exemplified by L’Homme qui marche (Man Walking), is said to represent “naked vulnerability.”
Another eminent sculptor, Jean Tinguely (b. 1925), became known for his kinetic sculptures, which he called “machine sculptures” or “metamechanisms.” Some of these works, including Heureka, are displayed in Zurichhorn Park in Zurich. One of Tinguely’s most controversial creations is La Vittoria, a golden phallus 7.8m long (26 ft.).
Graphic art is another area in which Swiss have distinguished themselves. Today Switzerland is a center of commercial art and advertising.