Kunstmuseum Basel

Saturday 18th March 2006, I visited the Kunstmuseum in Basel, Switzerland. I had been planning to go, but was not sure if i would have time as my plane was delayed. I arrived in Basel and spent about an hour wandering around trying to find a map and sorting out when to train to Chur and trying to work out how the trams worked. I almost decided it was too much of a hassle to go.

But im glad that i made it. I got in for free too which im stoked about. The kunstmuseum has the most impressive collection that i have seen so far. They have such a variety. You name a famous artist, they probably have a piece of their work. I wandered around for an hour, it was so exciting to see more famous artwork. I saw works from Cezanne, Gaugin, Manet, Monet, Pissaro, Renoir, Van gogh, Kline, Still, Stella, Warhol, Johns, Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein, Picasso, Braque, Chirico, Chagall, Kandinsky, Klee, Matisse, Munch, Mondrian, Giacometti, Dali, Rothko...and much much more

Honestly it was almost too much to handle. It was really impressive seeing these works up close, but i think that they seem much more impressive when you cant access them, or when you only can look at them in books and dream about one day seeing them up close.When you finally see them upclose they dont seem as special...youre just like 'oh.picasso...cool...' Some i was actually not impressed by, for example Picassos work is just so famous...but it really didnt do anything for me, neither did Matisse's work. In fact most of the works by Matisse i considered very childish.

I was most impressed by the size of the works, especially those by Warhol and Rothko, Richter...they really are massive and very in your face...some like 3x6m. You just never figure them to be that big!

The work that i was most impressed by was that of Paul Klee, Kurt Schwitters, Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Ferdinand Hodler.

There is always cool exhibitions on too. At the moment there is one called 'The early portrait', reprenting works from the Kunstmuseum Basel and the Prince of Liechtenstein. There are portraits from the 15th century, private portraits from the 16th century, potraits of rulers, portraits of artists, portraits of couples. Personally im not into portraiture that much...mainly cos i suck at drawing people. But it was interesting to briefly look at.

Fantastic Museum, If you ever happen to be in Basel i reccomend that you go.