3 distinct chapters. I would describe them as Neoclassical, Post Modern and Contemporary. Well, I stand corrected- there are 4, but am missing the photographic evidence of the delineation of the one from 1958:
The architectural history of the Kunsthaus Zürich spans over a century, evolving through four major construction phases that reflect the shifting trends of 20th and 21st-century museum design.
Together, these four distinct structures form Switzerland’s largest art museum.
The Moser Building (Original Structure)
1910 & 1925
- Architect: Karl Moser (with Robert Curjel)
- Style: Secessionist / Neo-Grec / Jugendstil
- Key Features: Features a rich facade carved from local stone with relief sculptures. Karl Moser added a extension to his original structure in 1925 to accommodate growing collections.
The Pfister Extension
1958
- Architects: Otto and Werner Pfister (Pfister Brothers)
- Style: Mid-century Modernism
- Key Features: Introduced a large exhibition hall with flexible partition walls, an auditorium, and a restaurant. The exterior incorporated striated concrete panels that contrasted with Moser’s original stonework.
The Müller Extension
1976
- Architect: Erwin Müller
- Style: Late 20th-century Functionalism
- Key Features: Added additional gallery spaces and modern climate/security infrastructure, completing the main complex on the east side of Heimplatz.
The Chipperfield Extension
2020–2021
- Architect: David Chipperfield Architects
- Style: Contemporary Minimalist / Rationalist
- Key Features: A freestanding, cubic volume positioned on the north side of Heimplatz. It is clad in vertical slender fins of Jurassic limestone and linked to the historical complex via a 70-meter underground passage.
Even from the external pictures, I only get 3 sections… so- where’s the fourth? This is definitely the problem of not walking around the entire perimeter.
I couldn’t decide where the entrance was on which side of the street- I opted for the Chipperfield Extension which is the one I would recommend. It is grander. Whether inside or out, the place is a maze- I have never decided to study a museum plan as much as I had for this one. Part of the reason was that the audience I carried with me would be short on attention and also after a quick scan, there were sections of art that I wasn’t in the mood for (mostly older religious works).
My favorite section was this one which must be the one from 1976. The artwork wasn’t the most interesting, but the exposed HVAC and skylights were great contrast to the Neoclassical sections it connected to.
Now I have to talk about the art here a bit to lead into the final comment.
Kerry James – American artist with first solo exhibition in Germanic speaking countries. Shown also at Venice Biennial – inspired me once and for all that I need to go (targeting the 2028 version).
The largest Calder mobile I’ve seen besides the one in the Modern Museum of Art in Washington D.C.
The minute I walked into this exhibit I knew it had to be Refik. I was mesmerized by the one in Istanbul so much there’s no way I wouldn’t recognize another. I congratulated myself for doing so. Sometimes it’s nice to have someone to brag to.
Rothko. Nothing more to add. You should know.
There are now three portraits that matter to me: Woman with a Parasol – Madame Monet and Her Son; Girl with a Pearl Earring; Le Couple (Les Misérables). I stood in front of this painting for a long time. At request upon my death- see these and you too should stand in front of them as long as you imagined I would have.
Pipilotti Rist, Pixelwald Turicum. I’m not going to start posting videos to this blog project, but it really is the sound design to go along with these animating lights that makes it magical. This installation is part of the Collection Werner and Gabriele Merzbacher:
Notes from Gemini:
The story of the Merzbacher Collection is rooted in profound tragedy, loss, and survival during the Holocaust—and how vibrant art became a refuge from that darkness.
Flight and Devastation
- Werner’s Loss: In 1938, following the violence of Kristallnacht, 10-year-old Werner Merzbacher was sent by his parents from Germany to Switzerland as a refugee child. He never saw them again. In 1943, both of his parents were murdered by the Nazi regime at the Majdanek concentration camp. Werner was left an orphaned refugee, stateless in post-war Europe.
- Gabriele’s Displacement: Gabriele Mayer’s German-Jewish family was similarly uprooted by Nazi tyranny, fleeing Germany in 1941 to seek refuge in New York, where she and Werner later met.
Art as an Act of Defiance
For Werner and Gabriele, collecting art was not a commercial venture—it was a deeply personal counterweight to grief.
Rather than choosing muted or somber works, Werner gravitated toward early 20th-century movements like Fauvism and German Expressionism (Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter). He explicitly sought out paintings exploding with vivid, uninhibited color—by artists like Matisse, Kandinsky, and Kirchner.
“In view of the fact that Werner’s parents died in a Nazi concentration camp, the importance of color as a symbol of life in their home cannot be overstated.”
Ultimately, every fiery canvas in the collection served as a quiet victory over the darkness of his past—a living symbol of warmth, resilience, and the triumph of life.
The atrocities of WWII have bubbled up in a couple of areas recently- this placard for this artwork by Dali specifically called out that while its provenance is not fully known, that is confirmed to not have been procured through Nazi prosecution.
Notes from Gemini:
- Targeting Private Collections: Special Nazi looting units—primarily the Einsatzstab Reichsleiter Rosenberg(ERR)—confiscated tens of thousands of artworks from prominent European Jewish collectors, art dealers (such as Paul Rosenberg and Alphonse Kann), and fleeing refugees. Famous Dalí canvases, including Swans Reflecting Elephants, were caught in these seizures.
- The Jeu de Paume Exchange: In occupied Paris, looted modern artworks were gathered at the Jeu de Paume museum. While classical pieces were funneled into Hitler’s planned Führermuseum or Göring’s private collection, “degenerate” works by Dalí, Picasso, and Ernst were frequently traded or sold through collaborator art dealers (such as Etienne Bignou and Walter Hofer) to raise foreign currency for the Reich.
- The Swiss Corridor: Neutral Switzerland became a major hub for trading looted or coerced-sale modern art during the war. Many works with disrupted WWII provenance entered American and European private collections and museums through these channels in the post-war decades.
- Following the 1998 Washington Conference Principles on Nazi-Confiscated Art, international museums and auction houses began auditing their collections for works acquired between 1933 and 1945.
- Major institutions (such as the Kunstmuseum Bern) have conducted deep provenance investigations into gifts and acquisitions tied to dealers who traded in Nazi-occupied Europe.
- Restitution researchers continue tracing missing or wrongfully acquired Dalí paintings to locate the heirs of their original pre-war owners.
I had forgotten the Swiss’s involvement in this. This art museum is threaded through and through with the history from the war. I appreciate that they call out (though maybe for some not enough) because we too soon forget.
And in these recent mentions of the war – something I did not expect which was the call out of the importance of the process of grieving. How do people not just survive but thrive out of such tragedy and horror? We don’t know of the limits what we’re dealing with. The art in this museum is a reflection of human resilience. It is a reminder that while death is always at our door, we open it again and again and challenge it – and when we can win, however big or small- let us take that and celebrate.
Address: Heimpl. 1/5, 8001 Zürich, Switzerland
Website: Kunsthaus history ; ARCHELLO write up of extension
Specific artwork
