LUCERNE.- Compiling a pictorial archive for the general public was one of the main objectives of the Kunstgesellschaft when it was founded in 1819. The exhibition NEWS! shows how this objective is handled today. The exhibition pays particular attention to ensuring that new acquisitions suit the Kunstmuseum Lucerne's current holdings in some way, are linked with or complement them. For this reason the exhibition focuses the museum's collecting activities on four areas which can be easily recognised in the NEWS! exhibition:

1. Art of the 1970s as a direct consequence of the legendary exhibitions under the directorships of Jean-Christophe Amman and Martin Kunz;

2. Historical art with a reference to Central Switzerland, i.e., views of the landscape, portraits of related personalities, but also works by artists living and working here;

3. Art by contemporary artists of supra-regional importance but from Central Switzerland, that is to say, we collect not such much on a broad but on an in depth basis;

4. Art that preserves traces of our own exhibition activities and with them the history of our institution.

Under headings such as Starry Sky, Young and Old, Order and Freedom, or Gestures important new acquisitions from the past ten years enter into dialogue with the existing holdings. Artists‘ engagement with the theme of the Forest spans a wide arc: In Robert Zünd’s naturalistic painting we recognise every single leaf, whereas the Arte-Povera artist Guiseppe Penone carves a tree from a beam and in doing so also addresses the theme of sculpture. For Jos Näpflin and Vito Acconci the forest becomes the home of unnameable anxieties or else it is a dark, solemn place.

Portraits of young people and works related to family histories extend beyond styles, eras and media. Hodler’s bezauberter Knabe youth wearing a vest and linen trousers takes up the pose of the angel of the Annunciation, while Cuno Amiet’s seated girl tells of a hot summer’s day. Sharon Lockhart’s photo-series Milena, Jaroslaw 2013/14 captures the ambiguity that exists between curiosity and adolescent shyness. José Júlio de Souza Pinto shows how a grandfather teaches his grandson, while Laure Prouvost spins stories about her grandfather, a lost concept artist.

Works by Richard Paul Lohse, John M Armleder and Claudia Comte speak to us of the strict conceptual approach of Constructive Art and of its freer interpretation by a younger generation of artists.

Artists: Vito Acconci, Cuno Amiet, John M Armleder, Franz Karl Basler-Kopp, Sabian Baumann, Louis Béroud, Katinka Bock, Brüsseler Monogrammist H.B., Hansjürg Buchmeier, Ernst Buchwalder, Max Buri, Balthasar Burkhard und Markus Raetz, Michael Buthe, Claudia Comte, Piero Dorazio, Raoul Dufy, Anton Egloff, Hans Emmenegger, Helmut Federle, Franz Fedier, Alois Fellmann, Pia Fries, Giovanni Giacometti, Michel Grillet, Max Gubler, Anton Henning, Ferdinand Hodler, Oskar Holweck, Irma Ineichen, Vassily Khmeluk, Bernd Koberling, Sharon Lockhart, Richard Paul Lohse, Rémy Markowitsch, Fabian Marti, Barthélemy Menn, Jos Näpflin, Giuseppe Penone, Laure Prouvost, Clara Reinhard, Josef Reinhard, Ugo Rondinone, Christoph Rütimann, Claude Sandoz, Kateřina Šedá, Taryn Simon, José Julio de Souza Pinto, Johann Gottfried Steffan, Friedrich Stirnimann, Christine Streuli, Paul Thek, Félix Vallotton, Maurice de Vlaminck, Aldo Walker, Franz Erhard Walther, Franz Wanner, Rolf Winnewisser, Joseph Zelger, Robert Zünd

Curated by Heinz Stahlhut