The Collection - Recent Swiss Art in all its Diversity

The Aargauer Kunsthaus is home to one of the most beautiful and comprehensive public collections of recent Swiss art. It is an ideal venue for encountering the great diversity of Swiss art – from the 18th century to today.

Foundation and History

The initiative was taken to build up an art collection in Aarau with the foundation of the Aargauische Kunstverein in 1860. From the very beginning, Swiss art was the main focus of the collecting activities. Regular new acquisitions, donations and works on permanent loan continue to broaden the scope of the collection to this very day.

> New Acquisitions

Highlights

In the course of time, various areas were focussed on. The focal points of the collection's older section are groups of works by Caspar Wolf, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Arnold Böcklin, as well as 19th century landscape painting. The collection also provides a representative survey of 20th century Swiss art, from early modernism to post-war abstract art, the artistic upheaval of the 1960s to the immediate present.

Graphisches Kabinett and Galerie der Gegenwart

In the Graphische Kabinett various exhibitions and new presentations of works from the collection are shown, be that prints of photographs by Evelyn Hofer, Binia Bill, Markus Raetz, Roman Signer, or works on paper which, for example, complemented the large exhibition “Wolkenbilder”.

The Galerie der Gegenwart embraces the contemporary section of the collection. These work groups are regularly presented from a whole new angle – so that a lively view of the collection is maintained, and the Aargauer Kunsthaus can take recent developments in contemporary art into account.

Artwork of the Month

Every month a specific work from the Collection is focussed on. In this context, a guided-tour for the general public takes place every week at lunch-time, with the aim of facilitating an intense engagement with a specific artistic position.

> Artwork of the Month
> Publications on the Collection of the Aargauer Kunsthaus