Viewing Room – The Backward Glance can be a Glimpse into the Future

Sep 05 – Nov 07 2020
von Bartha, Basel
To Make our anniversary exhibition accessible to everyone, we’ve published an Online Viewing Room on ‘The Backward Glance can be a Glimpse into the Future’, curated by Beat Wismer here. Find short bits of the history of von Bartha and anecdotes on works by Beat Wismer along the lines. All prices are including Swiss VAT and if you would like to know more, please find the ‘enquire here’ button at the bottom of the page.

Dancing Barefoot, 2020
Acrylic on linen
224 x 198 cm
CHF 72‘000

S-JT.A, 2014
Aluminium, glass and existing architecture
150 x 130 x 82 cm
CHF 48‘000

- Lygia Clark, Bicho - Projeto Para um planeta-Pq, 1960, Aluminium. Dimensions variable, Private Collection
- Mike Meiré, Untitled, 2020, Ceramic, 85 x 20 x 24 cm, CHF 15‘000
- Mike Meiré, Untitled, 2020, Ceramic, 85 x 33 x 28 cm, CHF 15‘000
- Verena Loewensberg, Untitled, 1956, Oil on canvas, 101 x 51 cm, Price upon request
- Enio Iommi, Construcción, 1945, Painted iron, marble, 54 x 49 x 33.5 cm, Collection von Bartha
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MISR, 2008
16 Lambda prints on Fujiflex
16 framed photographs, each 20 x 25 cm
CHF 45‘000

Aligned , 2016
Industrial lacquer on mdf
140 x 169.5 cm
CHF 20‘000

Right: Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Composition à motifs d’oiseaux, 1927-22, Watercolour, graphite , 38 x 26.5 cm, Private Collection

Vertikale Teilung, 1949
Oil on canvas
71 x 71 cm
Price upon request

Christ, 1943
Drawing
35 x 23.5 cm
CHF 14‘000
The arc of the exhibition is not chronologically ordered but nonetheless far-reaching: from contemporary, rigorously conceptual works and freely autonomous painterly positions back to the pioneers of international and South American Constructivism from the half century before the gallery’s founding—but also, vice versa, from works that seem incredibly young, though factually older, to today’s positions, which for their part have benefited from and developed the potentials of classical modernism, minimalistically strict or playfully free, geometrically abstract or figurative, but always reflected and respectful.

- Gyula Kosice, Estructura luminica Madí A4, 1946, Neon, 58 x 43 x 18 cm, CHF 250‘000
- Carmelo Arden Quin, Coplanal, 1945, Lacquer on panel, H: 55 cm, Collection von Bartha
- Marina Adams, Open the Next Sky, 2020, Acrylic on linen, 249 x 198 cm, CHF 75‘000

Olympus, 2020
Plexiglass box, glass sheet, mirror glass sheet, National Geographic magazine (October 1978)
27 x 19 x 25 cm
Ed: 1/3 + 1 AP
CHF 7‘000

Würfel No 8, 1992
Concrete cast, framework of sheet steel
50 x 50 x 50 cm
CHF 40‘000

Right: Camille Graeser, Zweimal komplementär 1 : 4, 1965, Oil on canvas, 78 x 60 cm, CHF 140‘000
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The exhibition is built around the idea of the symposium: on one hand, in its contemporary sense of a conference—disparate intelligent voices from various directions participating in an open artistic conversation through a wide variety of languages—on the other, the well-considered composition of the exhibition also evokes the symposium’s original meaning, i.e. a convivial gathering appropriate to the festive anniversary occasion.

Right: Beat Zoderer, Polygoner Monolith No. 4 Schwarz (Serie III), 2019, Solid aluminium milled and anodized, 97 x 55 x 67 cm, CHF 25‘000

Waves 1 of ten - Waves 10 of ten, 2012
Graphite and colored
pencil on paper
27.9 x 21.6 cm
CHF 30‘000

Komposition in einem schwarzen Kreis, 1937 / 39
Gouache on paper
35 x 26 cm
Price upon request

Untitled, 2016
Dye, canvas and wooden support
282.9 x 75.6 x 75.6 cm
Price upon request

The Red Screen, 1995
Oil on white grounded paper
107 x 76 cm
CHF 95‘000
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The works on display are by some 40 artists with whom von Bartha has worked with over the past decades or is currently working with. Furthermore the gallery owner and the curator also invited a few other artists, whose works make an attractive contribution to the discourse outlined above.

Right: two objects by Anna Dickinson

Right: Imi Knoebel, Für Piet, Kasimir und Carmen, 1981, Acrylic, metal, mirror, 55 x 44 x 5 cm, Private Collection

Poool, 2016/17
Oil on canvas
180 x 225 cm
CHF 30‘000

NewExBolígrafo, 2015
Oil on board
24 x 18 cm / 21 x 18 cm
Each CHF 2‘800

Opus Nr. 1, 1920
Charcoal on paper
22.5 x 18 cm
CHF 40‘000

KS.067, 2020
Lamsbwool roll, wood, lacquered metal
CHF 12‘000

- Karim Noureldin, Pi, 2020, Acrylic on wood, each 40 x 27 cm, each CHF 7‘500
- Iman Issa, Heritage Studies #22, 2016, Painted wood, vinyl text, 68 x 68 x 245 cm, Edition of 3 + 2 AP, CHF 45‘000
- Olle Baertling, Karak, 1962, Oil on canvas, 195 x 97 cm, Collection von Bartha