HomeThe collectionClassical Modernism

Classical Modernism

The Kunsthaus opened in 1910, at the height of Fauvism in France and Expressionism in Germany. Exhibitions of modernist art began early on; but it was not until 1925, with the arrival of Henri Matisseʼs Margot (1906), that works by international artists like Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger et al. started to enter the collection.

Kandinsky, Schwarzer Fleck, 1921
Wassily Kandinsky, Black Spot, 1921, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1947
Matisse, Margot, 1906
Henri Matisse, Margot, 1906, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1925 © Succession H. Matisse / 2020, ProLitteris, Zurich
Picasso, Guitare, 1924
Pablo Picasso, Guitare, verre et compotier avec fruits (Guitar, Glass and Fruit Bowl), 1924, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1952, © Succession Picasso / 2020, ProLitteris, Zurich
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Hannah Höch, Dada-Mill, around 1920, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1979, © 2021, ProLitteris, Zurich
Magritte, Septembre, 1956
René Magritte, Le Seize Septembre (The Sixteenth of September), 1956, Kunsthaus Zürich, Donated by Walter Haefner, 1995, © 2020, ProLitteris, Zurich
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Piet Mondrian, Composition with Red, Blue and Yellow, 1930, Kunsthaus Zürich, Donated by Alfred Roth, 1987
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Oskar Kokoschka, Amorous Couple with Cat, 1917, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1933 © Fondation Oskar Kokoschka, Vevey / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Max Ernst, Petals and the Garden of the Nymph Ancolie, 1934, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1965. The restoration was supported by the Hans Imholz-Stiftung, © 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Salvador Dalí, Femme à tête de roses (Woman with Head of Roses), 1935, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1957, © Fundació Gala-SalvadorDalí / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Edvard Munch, Winter Night, ca. 1900, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1931
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August Hermann Scherer, Lamentation of the Dead, 1924, Kunsthaus Zürich, Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde, 1997
nolde, Herbstmeer, 1910
Emil Nolde, Herbstmeer XI (Autumn Sea XI), 1910, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1950, © Nolde Stiftung Seebüll
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Georges Braque, La cheminée, 1928, Kunsthaus Zürich, Vereinigung Zürcher Kunstfreunde, 1956, © 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
Richier, Crapaud, 1942
Germaine Richier, Le Crapaud (The Toad), 1942, Kunsthaus Zürich, Donated by Hulda Zumsteg by her son Gustav Zumsteg, 1946, © 2020, ProLitteris, Zurich
Marc, Eichhörnchen, 1914
Franz Marc, Wald mit Eichhörnchen (Forest with Squirrel), 1913, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1953

The Kunsthaus holds the world’s largest Dada collection, comprising 740 historic documents and artworks by Hans Arp, Hannah Höch, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Man Ray, Tristan Tzara and others: the vestiges of the movement that erupted in Zurich in 1916 and paved the way for the Surrealists – Ernst, Miró, Dalí and Magritte – are as unsettling and entertaining as ever.

« Dada is the first consistently international art movement with its origins in Zurich that radically transformed art. » — Cathérine Hug, Curator
Exhibition view

Among the Expressionists the focus is on Oskar Kokoschka and Edvard Munch, the founding father of Nordic Expressionism. With more than a dozen paintings, the Kunsthaus holds the world’s largest Munch collection outside Norway. The major group of works by Kokoschka illuminates every stage of his multifaceted artistic career, from the early portraits to the painterly riots of colour that typify his late years by Lake Geneva. Alongside these are several works by Max Beckmann, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and the Basel group Rot-Blau. Herman Scherer’s ‘Lamentation of the Dead’ is one of the few figures that the sculptor painted in colour, and a key work of Expressionism.

Mondrian and the geometrical-constructive art of the De Stijl movement, the Bauhaus and its teachers Klee and Kandinsky met with an enthusiastic response in Zurich, where architects and designers such as Max Bill and Richard Paul Lohse took up their ideas and developed them further. Complementing their work are paintings by Delaunay, Moholy-Nagy, Albers and Loewensberg , and the substantial estate of Fritz Glarner.

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Discover the most important paintings, sculptures, installations and graphic works from the Kunsthaus in our online collection. The selection is being continually expanded and complemented by the latest scientific findings. With the generous support of the Federal Office of Culture (FOC).

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