BASEL.- Given the public’s unabated interest, the exhibition devoted to American painter Edward Hopper has been extended through 20 September 2020. The collection display «Silent Vision», shown in parallel, will be on view through the end of November 2020. The major «Goya» exhibition, originally scheduled to open on 17 May, will now take place from 10 October 2021 to 23 January 2022. The autumn exhibition «Close-up», which brings together portraits by nine impressionist, modern and contemporary female artists, had to be postponed due to the persistent coronavirus pandemic and its implications for international art loans.

While countless museums worldwide remain closed due to the coronavirus pandemic, in Riehen/Basel many visitors have already been able to enjoy the Fondation Beyeler’s museum and park again since their reopening on 11 May. Tickets can be purchased online and are sold out several days in advance. With a comprehensive safety plan featuring a cap on visitor numbers, separate entry and exit points for the museum, the screening space, the park and the restaurant as well as additional hygiene measures such as free masks, the Fondation Beyeler is able to ensure a pleasant experience for visitors even in times of coronavirus.

Edward Hopper
The public’s strong interest is mainly focused on the «Edward Hopper» exhibition, organised by the Fondation Beyeler in cooperation with the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The celebrated American painter’s images are usually to be seen only in American museums. Despite the coronavirus crisis, around 170’000 visitors have already seen the highly acclaimed show on view in Riehen near Basel. It is becoming apparent that the consistently high demand will exceed the currently limited supply of tickets up to the exhibition’s planned close on 26 July. The Fondation Beyeler was able to convince American museums and private collectors to generously maintain their valuable loans for another extension of the Hopper exhibition. This unique presentation of Hopper’s landscapes will thus remain open to visitors until the end of summer. For sanitary safety reasons, guided tours are limited to late afternoons and evenings outside museum opening hours.

Wim Wenders’ Hopper-inspired 3D film
Wim Wenders’ 3D short film Two or Three Things I Know about Edward Hopper, created specifically for the Edward Hopper exhibition, remains on exclusive view at the Fondation Beyeler. A dedicated screening space has been set up and specific hygiene measures are in place to ensure visitor safety – separate entry and exit points, limited number of viewers, single seating and compulsory masks.




Goya
Organised by the Fondation Beyeler in cooperation with the Museo Nacional del Prado in Madrid, the Francisco de Goya exhibition was scheduled to open on 17 May and close on 16 August 2020. On the basis of information reaching us from other museums and specialist shipping companies, it will likely remain difficult in coming months to ship artworks to Switzerland from some European countries and especially from the United States. The large-scale Goya exhibition has therefore been postponed to next year and will take place from 10 October 2021 to 23 January 2022. Several years of research and preparatory work have gone into this exhibition, which is certain to be a highlight of the international exhibition calendar. It will bring together seldom displayed paintings, drawings and prints from Spanish private collections and key works from renowned European and American museums and private collections.

Close-up
Berthe Morisot, Mary Cassatt, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Lotte Laserstein, Alice Neel, Frida Kahlo, Marlene Dumas, Cindy Sherman, Elizabeth Peyton

This year’s autumn exhibition, originally scheduled from 27 September 2020 to 31 January 2021, had to be postponed in view of the coronavirus crisis. New exhibition dates will be set and announced in due course. The logistics of international art loans remain severely disrupted by museum shutdowns, reduced air traffic, entry bans and other restrictions linked to the pandemic. Some of the loans for «Close-up», which will travel from eight European countries, Mexico and (for about half of them) the United States, can currently not be shipped to Switzerland. Much to the Fondation Beyeler’s regret, the repercussions of the coronavirus crisis therefore make it impossible to hold the exhibition in 2020.

This ambitious and unique show will present works by female artists who occupy prominent positions within the history of modern art from 1870 to the present day and who share an emphasis on the depiction of the human figure in portraits and self-portraits. The exhibition focuses on the artists’ personal vision of their surroundings, as expressed in portraits of themselves and others. The show will reveal the way the artists’ view of themselves and their subjects shifts between 1870 and the present day.

Silent Vision
The current collection display «Silent Vision – Images of Calm and Quiet» has been extended through the end of November 2020. It focuses on works of modern and contemporary art dealing with various aspects of calm and quiet – still lifes, contemplative landscapes, images of sleep and final rest. The exhibition showcases over 100 works by Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Piet Mondrian, Hans Arp, Alberto Giacometti, Mark Rothko, Andy Warhol, Richard Serra, Gerhard Richter, Marlene Dumas and many others.