Sadie benning: New constellations – Artworks from the collection

Art is far more than just a reflection of its time. It poses questions that transcend epochs. This exhibition presents works of art from the 16th century to the present day from the collections of the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Emanuel Hoffmann Foundation. They all address the dark sides of our existence: war and conflict, violence and destruction—and ultimately, transience. The monumental installation by Andreas Slominski (* 1959) serves as a conceptual focal point. Its tense interplay of fascination and threat, containment and control, influenced the transhistorical selection of the works on display.

Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98–1543), for example, used symbolic motifs such as skulls to emphasize the inevitability of death. Lotti Krauss (1912–1985) and Niklaus Stoecklin (1896–1982) responded to the devastation of the First World War at Hartmannsweilerkopf in the French Vosges with barren landscape depictions. In these scenes, nature, scarred by battle, becomes a symbol of human suffering. Kara Walker (*1969) created a shadow play characterized by depictions of violence from historical sources. Her narrative reveals how deeply racism and sexism are inscribed in the social fabric.

This collection presentation makes discomfort, vulnerability, and violence visible. Not with the intention of closing the story, but rather to stimulate reflection on how we deal with the past, with others, and with what we’d rather not see.