Winter in art

The Kunsthaus Zürich (Switzerland) is staging a thematic exhibition focusing on depictions of winter from the Renaissance to Impressionism.

Entitled Winter Tales, it includes some 120 works by artists such Pieter Brueghel the Younger, Jacob van Ruisdael, Francisco de Goya, Kazimir Malevich, Claude Monet, Edvard Munch and many other European painters. For the first time in a Swiss art museum, it brings together the hand-carved, opulently gilded sleighs of Austria’s ruling family and sumptuous Flemish tapestries.

The creation myths of most great civilizations generally agree that winter came into the world as a punishment and a plague. Until the Middle Ages, its arrival imperilled food supplies and health in a predominantly agrarian society that was at the mercy of nature. Since then, social and technological progress have combined to progressively mitigate winter's impact. The Kunsthaus Zürich exhibition also highlights the pleasurable aspects of the season, and its timing has been deliberately chosen to herald the arrival of spring.

Date: until April 29.
Location:  Kunsthaus Zürich, Heimplatz 1, CH-8001 Zurich. Switzerland.
Opening hours: Saturday, Sunday and Tuesday from 10am to 6pm. Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10am to 8pm.