Basel exhibitions reflect troubled ties with history

The exhibitions include works by Marc Chagall, as well as Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse and many other artists. Keystone

Two exhibitions opening on Saturday at Basel Fine Arts Museum (Kunstmuseum) highlight not only important works but explain some of their links with the Nazi era.

One of them focuses on Curt GlaserExternal link, the Jewish art collector and curator who was persecuted by the Nazis and fled to Switzerland in 1933. Glaser auctioned off his collection the same year. The Kunstmuseum Basel acquired an important number of works from this collection, but in 2020 agreed to pay an undisclosed sum to Glaser’s heirs as compensation for acquiring them at knock-down prices when he fled Nazi Germany.

The collection includes works by Edvard Munch, Henri Matisse and Marc Chagall. It is also being supplemented by loans for the exhibition. 

“This exhibition links Curt Glaser’s life and work with impressive pieces that are being shown together again for the first time since they were dispersed in 1933,” says the museum. “By bringing a fascinating collection back to life and examining Glaser’s broad impact on the art world in Weimar-era Berlin, the show illuminates a hitherto little-known chapter in the history of Modernism.”

A second exhibition also opening on Saturday is entitled “Castaway ModernismExternal link: Basel’s Acquisitions of ‘Degenerate’ Art”. In the summer of 1939, the Kunstmuseum Basel bought 21 works by Modern masters. The Nazi regime, vilifying them as “degenerate” had forced their removal from German museums. 

“That act of selection — sorting some works into the category of “exploitable” while condemning others to oblivion or destruction — still casts a shadow over museum collections around the world,” says the Kunstmuseum. “The show is both art-historical and historical in scope and tells unexpected stories of people, artworks, and commerce.”