Karl Moser: Art and Architecture

The Künsthaus Zurich is honouring the architect behind the museum's own building with an extensive exhibition dedicated to Karl Moser's take on art and architecture. Karl Moser: Art and Architecture marks both the final event during the museum’s own centenary, and the 150th anniversary of the birth of architect.

Known as the 'father of modernism', Moser made architectural history in Switzerland with contributions to the University of Zürich campus, Basel’s Badisher Bahnhof, the Church of St Anthony and the Kunsthaus itself, which he completed between 1904 and 1910.

Throughout his life the architect collaborated extensively with a number of artists including Carl Burckhardt, Oskar Kiefer and Ferdinand Hodler; all of whom are represented in the exhibition, which comprises over 300 objects. On display will be plaster models, studies for the decoration of the Kunsthaus façade, drawings for additional sculptural building elements, and sketchbooks. Moser’s work with Hodler is located directly below the artist’s murals on display at the museum, a neat representation of the artistic appointment of Moser’s architecture.

Curator Sonja Hildebrand explains the concept behind the show: 'Karl Moser saw art and architecture as two idioms of the same language. Whenever possible he included artists within his building design teams. A prime example of a building incorporating art is the Kunsthaus Zurich. For the first time, a broad spectrum of Karl Moser's works are shown in an exhibition that also includes, besides other numerous proofs of the collaboration between architect and artist, several conceptiual gypsum models of the large metop reliefs at the museum's main building.'

A final highlight of the show is a section co-curated with the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zürich, (Moser worked there as a professor from 1955 - 1928) which offers visitors a chance to see the Kunsthaus’ extension, designed by British architect David Chipperfield. Guided tours led by curator Hildebrand and workshops featuring architect Giacinto Pettorino will look at the coherence of the extension as it proceeds from content to form.

Andrea Klettner is a freelance journalist and the editor of Love London Council Housing