Artists: Michael Armitage, Silvia Bächli, Miriam Cahn, Róza El-Hassan, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Leiko Ikemura, Renée Levi, Maja Rieder, Martin Assig.
Contemporary drawings reveal manifold facets. They are abstract or figurative, carefully considered or spontaneous. They probe questions of identity amid differences of culture and national belonging. Or they boast broad strokes and rich colors, ignoring the line that divides the medium from painting. The collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel’s Kupferstichkabinett (Department of Prints and Drawings) reflect this diversity. An exhibition at the Neubau now showcases around 150 works, the majority of which were added to the collections in the past ten years, including works by Michael Armitage, Silvia Bächli, Miriam Cahn, Róza El-Hassan, Pélagie Gbaguidi, Leiko Ikemura, Renée Levi, and Maja Rieder. A concurrent presentation in the Hauptbau’s graphic art cabinets features around 50 works by Martin Assnig.
The exhibition offers insight into the Kupferstichkabinett’s collection-building strategy, which is exemplarily illustrated by the selection of works: one central goal is to compile larger bodies of work that let beholders gain a profound understanding of an oeuvre. This strategy contrasts with the so-called encyclopedic collection, which aims to gather comparatively few works by as many artists as possible. The corpuses patiently assembled at the Kupferstichkabinett make it possible for the exhibition Drawing Today to dedicate entire rooms to individual artists.
The foundations of the Kupferstichkabinett’s extensive collections of art by Silvia Bächli, Miriam Cahn, and Leiko Ikemura were laid the early 1980s. They have grown not only through acquisitions, but also through joint exhibition projects, ongoing dialogues with the artists over the years, and longstanding close relationships with collectors and foundations. The smaller bodies of work by Renée Levi and Maja Rieder, on the other hand, are recent additions to the collections.
In the past few years, the Kunstmuseum Basel has also made a concerted effort to diversify its selection of artists. Michael Armitage and Pélagie Gbaguidi, for instance, have African roots but now primarily work in the European context. In very different ways, their figurative drawings bring intercultural questions into play.
Curator: Anita Haldemann
Neubau
Room 1: Renée Levi
Room 2: Maja Rieder
Room 3: Silvia Bächli
Room 4: Leiko Ikemura
Room 5: Michael Armitage, Pélagie Gbaguidi und Róza El-Hassan
Room 6: Miriam Cahn
Hauptbau
Graphic art cabinets on floor 1: Martin Assig
Source: Kunstmuseum Basel
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