ZURICH.- From 31 October 2025 to 25 January 2026, the Kunsthaus Zürich presents virtuoso prints from six centuries.

The Collection of Prints and Drawings at the Kunsthaus Zürich is a veritable treasure trove: many of the light-sensitive works spend just a short time in the limelight before returning to storage, where they are protected from exposure. In 2015, the Kunsthaus celebrated the 100th anniversary of its Prints and Drawings Collection with the exhibition ‘Masterpieces of Drawing’. Today, exactly ten years later, we are turning our focus to printmaking.

To this day, many misunderstandings surround prints: can works of this kind actually be considered as originals? Why is there not just one copy, but many? The Kunsthaus shows that prints are a true means of artistic expression, and not just a way of reproducing pictorial ideas. The use of printing ink and the resulting play of line and surfaces and of light and dark create works of unique impact.

MASTERPIECES FROM DÜRER TO GOYA

From Albrecht Dürer and Rembrandt van Rijn to Francisco de Goya – the collection of the Kunsthaus Zürich spans the leading practitioners of the art of printmaking right back to the Old Masters. The presentation includes virtuoso etchings and woodcuts that focus on the motif and the technical mastery of the artists. It is not strictly chronological, but has instead been grouped by techniques, thus highlighting how each gave rise to entirely new forms of expression over the centuries. It also reveals how the advent of new technologies inspired artists to tackle new themes and embrace new ways of image-making.

FROM KOLLWITZ TO CHUCK CLOSE

It is in the modern era that printmaking achieves its greatest breadth, in the works of artists as diverse as Käthe Kollwitz, Mary Cassatt and Dieter Roth, who experiment with a vast range of techniques and different states. The format, too, is seemingly liberated from all constraints, as can be seen in the monumental self-portrait by Chuck Close, which measures an imposing 137 × 103 cm. In this exhibition, however, the Kunsthaus deliberately avoids categorizing works hierarchically according to size, since the appeal of a print is often to be found in its minutest details.

EXHIBITION AND CATALOGUE

Around 80 works on paper are on display in the cabinet of the Kunsthaus Zürich, curated by Jonas Beyer. A lavishly illustrated catalogue complements the exhibition and forms a companion volume to ‘Masterpieces of Drawing. 100 Years of the Prints and Drawings Collection at the Kunsthaus Zürich’, covering the additional field of printmaking. The catalogue is available at the Kunsthaus shop, priced at CHF 44.