By Bettina Goemener
The Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection is presented in a new way, also thanks to a donation of works by the surrealist Max von der Moos. BZ was on a guided tour.
There is great joy at the Scharf-Gerstenberg Collection. The museum received a donation of 30 paintings and graphics by the Swiss surrealist Max von Moos (1903-1979). It was also able to acquire works by Hannah Höch (1889-1978), Unica Zürn (1916-1970) and the Turkish artist Fatos Irwen.
“These works are now at the center of the new presentation of our collection. The starting point is Hannah Höch’s gouache ‘The creatures are many between heaven and earth’ from 1930,” says director Kyllikki Zacharias.
“There are many creatures between heaven and earth” (1930) by Hannah Höch Photo: Grisebach GmbH / VG-Bild Kunst
The subject of the exhibition is the image of man in surrealism. One sees beings between heaven and earth, damaged bodies, people who look like furniture, masks, skeletons, figures fighting demons like in the oil painting “Confrontation II” by Max von Moos.
The new works fit in well between the surrealists like Max Ernst, Hans Bellmer and Jean Dubuffet. Von Moos, who was also head of the Kunstgewerbeschule in Lucerne, never left the Swiss city.
Zacharias: “He always lived in a dark house with a housekeeper. His cosmos was surrealism.”
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