The Fondation Beyeler is pleased to announce a varied exhibition program for 2025. In addition to the temporary exhibitions, the Fondation Beyeler will be showing selected works from its collection throughout the year in the form of changing thematic presentations. The variety of exhibitions organized at the Fondation Beyeler in the coming year promises to inspire art lovers and visitors from all over the world.

Visitors can look forward to a fascinating group exhibition entitled "Northern Lights" (January 26 to May 25, 2025). The exhibition focuses on around 80 modern landscape paintings by artists from Scandinavia and Canada, including Hilma af Klint and Edvard Munch, for whom the boreal forest, the largest primeval forest in the world, served as a source of inspiration. In February, the Fondation Beyeler will present surrealist masterpieces from the Hersaint Collection for the first time with "The Key to Dreams" (February 16 to May 4, 2025). In summer, the illustrator and painter Vija Celmins (June 15 to September 21, 2025) will be honored with a comprehensive solo exhibition that brings the magical effect of her pictorial worlds to life. This is the most important presentation of Celmins' work in Europe for almost 20 years. The first retrospective of Japanese artist Yayoi Kusama in Switzerland will be shown at the Fondation Beyeler in fall 2025. The artist, who is one of the superstars of contemporary art, has achieved cult status with her exploration of repetitive patterns and structures that transport viewers into infinite worlds.

Here are the spring exhibitions 2025:

Edvard Munch, Zugrauch, 1900, oil on canvas, 84.5 x 109 cm, Munchmuseet, Oslo Photo: Munchmuseet / Halvor Bjørngård

Edvard Munch, Zugrauch, 1900, oil on canvas, 84.5 x 109 cm, Munchmuseet, Oslo Photo: Munchmuseet / Halvor Bjørngård

Northern Lights
At the beginning of the year, the Fondation Beyeler is presenting the group exhibition "Northern Lights". The exhibition focuses on around 80 landscape paintings by artists from Scandinavia and Canada created between 1880 and 1930, including masterpieces by Hilma af Klint and Edvard Munch. They all share the boreal forest as a common source of inspiration. The seemingly immeasurable forests, the radiant light of the seemingly endless days in summer, the long nights in winter and natural phenomena such as the Northern Lights have given rise to their own modern Nordic painting, which still exerts a special attraction and fascination today. The boreal forest, which stretches south and north of the Arctic Circle and is one of the largest primeval forests on earth, was increasingly depicted as a landscape of the soul. This is the first time that these pictures have been shown in this constellation in Europe. The group exhibition offers the opportunity to trace the development of Nordic landscape painting in modern art through selected works by Helmi Biese, Anna Boberg, Emily Carr, Prince Eugen, Gustaf Fjæstad, Akseli Gallen-Kallela, Lawren Harris, Hilma af Klint, J. E. H. MacDonald, Edvard Munch, Ivan Shishkin, Harald Sohlberg and Tom Thomson, and to discover artists who are probably still unknown to many visitors. "Northern Lights" is an exhibition by the Fondation Beyeler, Riehen/Basel, and the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Buffalo, New York.
January 26 to May 25, 2025

Max Ernst, The House Angel (The Triumph of Surrealism), 1937, oil on canvas, 114 x 146 cm, Collection Hersaint, © 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich

Max Ernst, The House Angel (The Triumph of Surrealism), 1937, oil on canvas, 114 x 146 cm, Collection Hersaint, © 2024, ProLitteris, Zurich

The key to dreams
Surrealist masterpieces from the Hersaint Collection
In a world premiere, the Fondation Beyeler is showing Surrealist masterpieces from the Hersaint Collection for the first time. The exhibition includes around 50 key works by artists such as Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Joan Miró, Pablo Picasso, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning and many others. The pictures take up central themes of surrealism, such as dreams, the unconscious, transformation and the forest as a place of mystery. The collection was founded by the banker Claude Hersaint, who bought his first painting by Max Ernst at the age of 17. He developed a lifelong passion for art, which resulted in one of the most important collections of surrealist painting. The paintings from the Hersaint Collection are presented in dialog with works from the Fondation Beyeler. The exhibition is made possible thanks to the support of Claude Hersaint's daughter Evangéline Hersaint and her wife Laetitia Hersaint-Lair.
February 16 to May 4, 2025

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