With John M Armleder, Louis Béroud, Max Bill, Arnold Böcklin, James Lee Byars, Alexandre Calame, Raoul Dufy, Johann Heinrich Füssli, Ferdinand Hodler, Johannes Itten, Verena Loewensberg, Richard Paul Lohse, Olivier Mosset, Ugo Rondinone, Nelly Rudin, Albrecht Schnider, Sonja Sekula, Christine Streuli, Maurice Vlaminck and others

What is beautiful? An idyllic landscape, a perfect body, a child’s rosy-cheeked face or an abstract colour tone? Is good art beautiful? Does an objective beauty exist at all? Or is it a matter of taste?

Sometimes people write in our visitors’ book that they would like to see “more beautiful art”. The collection exhibition outlines a small history of aesthetics with reference to different epochs and styles. What is beautiful for one person, can be repellent for another. What is regarded as beautiful depends on the cultural, social and societal background. Not only does the idea of beauty constantly change, the relationship between beauty and art does so too. For a long time, art was supposed to teach and to adorn. With modernism, however, the close relationship between beauty and art is no longer taken for granted, on the contrary. Beautiful art is suspected of being more pleasing than profound.

The exhibition does not illustrate a historical development, rather it addresses different ideas and invites visitors to get involved in the discussion.