BERN.- With two major special exhibitions and two comprehensive presentations of the collection, in 2026 the Kunstmuseum Bern is offering a programme of rediscoveries and new discoveries. The presentation Panorama Switzerland, extended until July, shows Swiss art from three centuries, including many highlights from artists such as Albert Anker, Ferdinand Hodler and Martha Stettler. With Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard, the Kunstmuseum Bern presents treasures from its collection of Old Masters. Also, all the works from the Stiftung Expressionismus (Expressionism Foundation) are being shown together for the first time. August sees the opening of the spectacular double retrospective Franz Gertsch. Blow-Up, organized in collaboration with the Franz Gertsch Museum. In the autumn, the exhibition Journey into Freedom leads us to dream destinations such as Skagen on the Danish North Sea coast, Monte Verità in the Ticino and the South Italian island of Capri.

Highlights from the collection

The presentation Panorama Switzerland. From Caspar Wolf to Ferdinand Hodler, extended until 5 July 2026, provides a unique overview of Swiss art of the 19th and early 20th century. The subjects extend from symbolist figurative paintings via genre scenes and impressive mountain landscapes to iconic depictions of the realities of Swiss life. The exhibition features artists such as Alexandre Calame, Arnold Böcklin, Giovanni Giacometti, Cuno Amiet, Martha Stettler and Ferdinand Hodler.

With Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard, the Kunstmuseum presents outstanding treasures from its collection of Old Masters: alongside masters of the early modern era, one room is dedicated to works of Florentine and Sienese painting from the 13th to the 15th century. The exhibition brings together altar panels from the Bernese Carnation Masters and paintings by the Bern painter, alderman and mercenary soldier Niklaus Manuel, opulent baroque still lifes and majestic portraits by artists including Albert Kauw and Johannes Dünz, as well as the famous devotional panel by Duccio di Buoninsegna and works by Fra Angelico and the workshop of Sandro Botticelli.

Since 2025, the holdings of the Stiftung Expressionismus (Expressionism Foundation) have been held in the Kunstmuseum Bern in their entirety. In a special presentation, the 25 works by artists such as Heinrich Campendonk, Gabriele Münter, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, Marianne von Werefkin, Sam Francis and Karel Appel are being shown to the public together for the first time.

Iconic portraits and epic landscapes

The late Franz Gertsch (1930–2022), a pioneer of photorealism and a master of the woodcut, is seen as one of the most significant contemporary Swiss artists. As a highlight opening in August, Franz Gertsch. Blow-Up, presented by the Kunstmuseum Bern in collaboration with the Museum Franz Gertsch, offers an overview of an artistic career lasting more than sixty years. Featuring iconic portraits and epic landscapes, the exhibition provides familiar insights and illuminates new perspectives on the reception of Gertsch’s work.

Of dream destinations and new visions of society

To round off the year, the exhibition Journey into Freedom. Capri – Skagen – Monte Verità takes visitors to three iconic dream destinations, and explores the phenomenon of the artists’ colony in Europe between 1830 and 1930 through some 70 works. It conveys the artistic pursuit of a free, communal and utopian future beyond urban, bourgeois society, and at the same time brings together art-historical and social issues of striking contemporary relevance.

Panorama Switzerland. From Caspar Wolf to Ferdinand Hodler
prolonged until 5 July 2026

Swiss art forms a significant focus in the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection. The presentation Panorama Switzerland examines selected aspects of visual art in Switzerland from the late 18th to the early 20th century. At the same time, it represents important groups of works from the collection of paintings, including Symbolist figure paintings from Arnold Böcklin to Ferdinand Hodler, genre scenes from Albert Anker to Max Buri, impressive mountain landscapes from Caspar Wolf to Albert Müller, as well as aspects of bourgeois leisure pursuits from Cuno Amiet to Martha Stettler. Thus, it opens a wide panorama of Swiss artists and motifs, as well as a unique overview of three centuries of Swiss art.

Stiftung Expressionismus. From Gabriele Münter to Sam Francis
until 5 July 2026

For the first time, the Kunstmuseum Bern is showing the collection of the Stiftung Expressionismus (Expressionism Foundation), in its entirety. The collection consists of 25 outstanding works and was assembled by the Bern family of Hans Rudolf and Silvia Tschumi. In 2007, they established the foundation. Since 2025, the entire collection has been housed at the Kunstmuseum Bern. Highlights include paintings by German Expressionists such as Heinrich Campendonk, Gabriele Münter, Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein, and Marianne von Werefkin, works by the Basel group Rot-Blau, including vividly coloured landscapes and portraits by Albert Müller and Hermann Scherer, as well as expressive pieces from the international postwar art scene, featuring artists like Sam Francis, Karel Appel, and Teruko Yokoi.

The exhibition is devoted to the memory of the donor Hans Rudolf Tschumi (1928–2025) and to the donor Silvia Tschumi.

Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard
13.2.–27.9.2026

One of the treasures of the Kunstmuseum Bern’s collection are the significant holdings of works of earlier art. The presentation Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard places a particular focus on the Bernese renaissance and early Florentine and Sienese painting from the 14th and 15th centuries. It includes artistically rich altar panels made by the Bernese Carnation Masters between 1480 and 1520, and the exceptional holdings of works by Niklaus Manuel (b. around 1484), who was not only a painter, poet and graphic artist, but also a reformer, mercenary soldier and alderman of the city of Bern. Opulent still lifes and majestic portraits made by artists such as Joseph Heintz, Albrecht Kauw and Johannes Dünz, reflect the economic affluence of Bern in the age of the baroque. Altarpieces and fragments from the Italian Trecento and Quattrocento, unparalleled in Switzerland, are also on display in a cabinet. These include a devotional panel, renown and highly valuable, by Duccio di Buoninsegna, as well as works by Bernardo and Taddeo Daddi, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi and the workshop of Sandro Botticelli.

Franz Gertsch. Blow-Up
Kunstmuseum Bern: 14.8.2026–17.1.2027 Museum Franz Gertsch: 19.9.2026–28.2.2027

Franz Gertsch (1930-2022) is seen as a Swiss pioneer of photorealism and a master of the modern woodcut. The retrospective Franz Gertsch. Blow-Up, shown in two parts in the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Museum Franz Gertsch, offers an overview of an artistic career lasting more than sixty years, including monumental paintings of the youth and music scene from the 1970s, iconic portraits of women from the 1980s, family paintings and portraits of artist friends, epic landscapes and images of nature. In the Kunstmuseum Bern the focus is on the years between 1956 and 2021, creating familiar insights, but also illuminating new aspects and perspectives for the reception of Gertsch’s work. The exhibition shows Gertsch’s stylistic development, and goes on to reveal the thematic lines and cross- connections within his œuvre. These include the relationship between humanity and nature, as well as the role of photography in painting, which are today acquiring a new significance in the context of ecological and humanitarian crises and in the age of the selfie.

The Franz Gertsch Museum concentrates on selected paintings and themes from the years between 1970 and 2022, with a particular focus on the models Patti Smith, Luciano Castelli and Irene Straub. Between 1978 and 1979, Gertsch made a total of five portraits of the rock poet Patti Smith, and thirteen of Luciano Castelli between 1971 and 1977. Irene Staub was part of Luciano Castelli’s circle, and was known as a high-class prostitute in Zurich under the name of ‘Lady Shiva’. Other works in the exhibition include large-format paintings of the models Johanna (1983–1985) and Silvia (1988–2004), as well as the important landscape subjects of the forest path (Campiglia Marittima), grasses and the sea as well as selected woodcuts.

Journey into Freedom. Capri – Skagen – Monte Verità
30.10.2026–31.1.2027

Featuring some 70 works, the exhibition Journey into Freedom. Capri – Skagen – Monte Verità sheds light on the phenomenon of the European artists’ colony in Europe between 1830 and 1930. In an age of social upheavals resulting from the industrial revolution, artists explored alternative lifestyles and social utopias away from the large cities, and brought subjects such as women’s emancipation, queer identity and the connection with nature centre-stage. The exhibition presents three selected dream destinations and allows visitors to experience the artistic breakthrough into a free and communal future. It confronts us with romantic and idealised depictions of landscape alongside naturalistic – sometimes brutal – images of the everyday life of workers, particularly fishermen. At the same time, it brings together art- historical and social issues with surprising contemporary relevance.