From tomorrow, the Kunsthaus Zürich (Switzerland) will be staging a cabinet exhibition of colourful landscapes by the Swiss painter, graphic artist and draughtsman Albert Welti (1862-1912). A pupil of Arnold Böcklin and a native of Zurich, Welti received numerous national commissions and is known both in Switzerland and abroad for his painting of the citizens' assembly in the chamber of the Swiss Council of States. His works express the turn-of-the-century mood: a time of transitions, as with the motif of the bridge, the cycle of ageing and the depiction of dream-like twilight scenes in nature.
Albert Welti loathed the impressionistic in all its forms. He was reluctant to exhibit his pastel works, and most remained hidden away in his studio throughout his life. Reportedly, he never showed his colour improvisations even to his closest friends, regarding them as nothing more than 'pastel nature sketches' -study material at best, that served its purpose in terms of picture composition. Posterity has come to view them differently.
The show features a selection of 25 studies for paintings and engravings -including one pastel that served as a draft for the celebrated mural of the citizens' assembly in the chamber of the Council of States at the Swiss Federal Parliament building.
Date: until March 4.
Location: Kunsthaus Zürich, Heimplatz 1, CH-8001 Zurich. Switzerland
Opening hours: from Wednesday to Friday from 10am to 8pm. Saturdays, Sundays and Tuesdays from 10am to 6pm.
See some of the artworks in the following slideshow:
CAC de Málaga hosts the largest exhibition of Vik Muniz' work ever held in Europe
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Van Gogh to Kandinsky: Symbolist Landscape in Europe 1880-1910
from July 14 to October 14.
