May 9 – September 5, 2010

Basquiat

The Fondation Beyeler plans a large retrospective to mark the fiftieth birthday of the American painter and draftsman Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988). Originating from the New York underground, the artist had become world famous for his expressive paintings by the early age of twenty. His friendships with Madonna, Andy Warhol, and Keith Haring have become legendary. Until his tragic, premature death, Basquiat created an impassioned oeuvre of paintings, drawings and objects. His powerful compositions, inspired by music, comics and sports, combined elements from popular culture and cultural history.

September 26, 2010 – January 9, 2011

Wien 1900

With the Wiener Werkstätte and Vienna Secession, fin-de-siècle Vienna was one of the cradles of modern art. Coffee house culture and the scandals surrounding the Secession were among the epoch-making phenomena of the period. At the center of our comprehensive thematic exhibition on Viennese modernism (1890-1910) stand renowned ornamental paintings by Gustav Klimt and erotic figurative depictions by Egon Schiele and the young Oskar Kokoschka, supplemented by works by further artists, architects, furniture designers, and artisans of the Secession and Wiener Werkstätte. The close cooperation among these artists reflected a new, comprehensive definition of art, that of the gesamtkunstwerk, which would subsequently be developed by the Bauhaus and De Stijl movement.