In 1935, in the newly opened Kunstmuseum Luzern, an exhibition of superlatives was shown that included works by Miró, Taeuber-Arp, Picasso, Braque, Giacometti, Calder and others. While at the same time in National Socialist Germany, art by Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Piet Mondrian was being defamed as “degenerate”, in 1935 the Kunstmuseum Luzern was showing works by precisely these modernist artists. The works came to the museum fresh from the artists’ studios. Today, they hang in the world’s most important collections.

Reconstructing an exhibition that was of enormous interest for the history of our institution, also offers the possibility of reporting on Lucerne in the context of the 1930s. Incipient modernism, resentment against the avant-garde, fascism and communism make up the historical backdrop to that legendary 1935 exhibition entitled These, Antithese, Synthese. The exhibition Kandinsky, Picasso, Miró et al. zurück in Luzern (back in Lucerne) communicates the intellectual, political and cultural upheavals of the inter-war years. At the same time the exhibition presents an overwhelming sensual art spectacle.