The Kunstmuseum Basel’s new director, Josef Helfenstein, will have an unusually free hand when he takes over this autumn. He and his curators will be able to develop the museum’s exhibition programme straight away, and he will inherit far more space to show its collection.
Museums arrange exhibition programmes two or three years in advance, so incoming directors usually have to wait to see their own shows materialise. But the institution’s outgoing director, Bernhard Mendes Bürgi, has, with his successor’s agreement, scheduled only one exhibition after his departure—a show of Jackson Pollock’s early figurative work (2 October-22 January 2017). So Lucerne-born Helfenstein, whose special interest is the 20th century, is already making plans for next year. He will move to Basel in September, having been the director of Houston’s Menil Collection since 2004.
The Kunstmuseum’s new wing opened in April; designed by the architects Christ & Gantenbein, the extension is across the road from the institution’s 1936 building. The initial idea was to construct a bridge between them, but the architects eventually opted for a tunnel. This not only separates the two buildings visually, but also meant that public facilities could conveniently be built underground.
The total cost was SFr100m (£102m). Half of the money came from Basel Canton and the other half from the Laurenz Foundation, which was set up by the art collector and pharmaceutical heiress Maja Oeri. She also founded the Herzog & de Meuron-designed Schaulager, on the outskirts of Basel. Donors giving vast sums for museum extensions normally want the buildings to be named after them, but Bürgi says that, although they discussed names, “we ended up simply calling it the New Building”.
For the opening, the new wing’s upper and ground floors are devoted to Bürgi’s show Sculpture on the Move: 1946-2016 (until 18 September). Post-1990 works are on display in the institution’s Gegenwart building.
The extension’s middle level now houses works from the permanent collection dating from 1950 to 1990, with an emphasis on American Expressionism—one of the museum’s strengths. Its original 1936 building is now dedicated to pre-1950 art, including the institution’s outstanding works by Hans Holbein the Younger. With the new extension increasing display space by just over half, Helfenstein and his colleagues will have much more flexibility in what they show. Visitor figures are expected to be around 300,000 a year.
Helfenstein will soon be choosing a deputy director to replace Nina Zimmer, who organised the Pollock show. She has been appointed director of the Kunstmuseum Bern and the Zentrum Paul Klee, near Bern, and is due to begin her new role in August.
