The Kiss (Lovers) by Gustav Klimt is the most famous Austrian painting and the highlight of the permanent collection at the Upper Belvedere. It shows a couple swathed in richly embellished robes embracing in a meadow of flowers on the brink of a precipice. The painting dates from 1907/08 at the height of Klimt’s “Golden Period” when the artist developed a new technique of combining gold leaf with oils and bronze paint.

The Collection de l’Art Brut will be closed until September 17th (2019) for construction work entailing, above all, the installation of an elevator. Given this time frame, we take pleasure in inviting you to a show extending from June 28th to September 22nd in the gardens of the Château de Beaulieu in Lausanne and featuring large-scale photographs of Outsider Art “environments” from around the world. These represent architectural feats or installations set up, for the most part, on private plots or gardens belonging to self-taught builders. Some of the latter have, however, taken over such sites covertly: to such creators, the very act of creating is part and parcel of their entire life.

2018 marks the 160th anniversary of diplomatic relations between Japan and France, as well as the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Meji period, when Japan opened up to the West. As part of the Japonisms 2018: souls in harmony cultural season, Throne will be displayed under the Pyramid of the Musée du Louvre. This monumental work by Japanese artist Kohei Nawa is entirely covered with gold leaf, and blends Japanese cultural tradition with cutting-edge technology. Nawa drew his inspiration from the shapes and origins of floats used in Eastern religious festivals. He made the work using a combination of the latest 3D modelling systems and the gold leaf gilding technique, echoing ancient Egypt and the collections of the Musée du Louvre. With this work, Nawa predicts that rapid advances in computer science and artificial intelligence could, in the long term, replace power and authority as the principal instruments of political and economic influence.

Racism is an inhumane ideology, but at the same time an everyday occurrence that confronts many people with discrimination and violence. The colour of their skin, their appearance, their religion or their language lead them to have humiliating experiences which are almost unimaginable for other parts of the population. Racism not only hurts individuals but also violates the ideals of equality and freedom that form the basis for our democratic society. This exhibition investigates how these forms of racism are connected to the term “race”: a category which, while it appears to describe human differences, is in fact really used to justify political, social and cultural inequality. Though people all over the world look very different from one another, there is no such thing as “human races”. “Races” are an invention whose catastrophic effects have wreaked harm since the 18th century. The exhibition analyses the scientific methods behind the development of this school of thought and presents images and media used to disseminate it to this day. One section addresses the role of the Deutsches Hygiene-Museum as a propaganda machine for so-called “racial hygiene” under National Socialism. Another chapter is devoted to the politics of racial exploitation in the colonial […]

Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) and Francis Bacon (1909–1992) were friends and rivals whose creative visions shaped art from the latter half of the twentieth century to the present day. This is the first time that a museum exhibition is being devoted to shedding light on these two artists and their relationship to each other.

Titled We don’t need another hero, the 10th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art is a conversation with artists and contributors who think and act beyond art as they confront the incessant anxieties perpetuated by a willful disregard for complex subjectivities.