with works by VITO ACCONCI, EIJA-LIISA AHTILA, DOUG AITKEN, KAI ALTHOFF, JOHN BALDESSARI, ROBERT BARRY, ALIGHIERO BOETTI, TROY BRAUNTUCH, ANGELA BULLOCH, VALENTIN CARRON, GEORGE CONDO, HANNE DARBOVEN, VERNE DAWSON, JEROEN DE RIJKE/WILLEM DE ROOIJ, PETER DOIG, TRISHA DONNELLY, STAN DOUGLAS, NICOLE EISENMAN, CERITH WYN EVANS, URS FISCHER, PETER FISCHLI/DAVID WEISS, SYLVIE FLEURY, LEE FRIEDLANDER, ISA GENZKEN, LIAM GILLICK, JACK GOLDSTEIN, DOUGLAS GORDON, RODNEY GRAHAM, ANDREAS GURSKY, WADE GUYTON, JENNY HOLZER, MIKE KELLEY, TOBA KHEDOORI, KAREN KILIMNIK, SEAN LANDERS, LOUISE LAWLER, SHERRIE LEVINE, SARAH LUCAS, ALLAN MCCOLLUM, LUCY MCKENZIE, JONATHAN MEESE, MARK MORRISROE, MATT MULLICAN, CADY NOLAND, ALBERT OEHLEN, LAURA OWENS, RAYMOND PETTIBON, RICHARD PHILLIPS, JACK PIERSON, SETH PRICE, RICHARD PRINCE, UGO RONDINONE, EVA ROTHSCHILD, THOMAS RUFF, ED RUSCHA, WILHELM SASNAL, JIM SHAW, STEVEN SHEARER, CINDY SHERMAN, ANDREAS SLOMINSKI, JOSH SMITH, STURTEVANT, WOLFGANG TILLMANS, ROSEMARY TROCKEL, KEITH TYSON, KELLEY WALKER, REBECCA WARREN, LAWRENCE WEINER, FRANZ WEST, CHRISTOPHER WILLIAMS, SUE WILLIAMS, CHRISTOPHER WOOL

For the first time, this exhibition provides a deeper insight into the art collection of Ringier, the biggest Swiss publishing house. Even if it would be presumptuous, given its overall size, to speak of a representative overview, the 150-or-so works by about 80 artists, still gives a valid impression of the collection’s artistic orientation.

The title Blasted Allegories is borrowed from a work by John Baldessari. It programmatically sums up an artistic interest of our time, but also the exhibition concept itself. It is not simply a matter of honouring a collection or a collector, but of using a highly focused selection to encourage engagement with contemporary artistic expressive media and, through these, with our information-flooded and image-saturated world.

In spite of its ‘explosive’ title, the exhibition includes a surprising number works that are ‘quiet’ in tone. The artists represented use all kinds of artistic media, and move between the poles of everyday narrative and the media, revolve around fantasies and fictions, take rules and infractions as their subject-matter. At the same time they are always concerned with the ‘image’ in all its manifestations and its significance for our present-day world.