Highlights
The ZB exhibition “Highlights – Masterpieces from the Prints and Drawings Department and Photo Archive” presents exhibits from 160 years of collecting activity. They include drawings, prints, picture postcards, photographs, paintings and sculptures from the 15th to 21st centuries.
29. October 2015 - 27. February 2016
Location
Schatzkammer der Zentralbibliothek Zürich
Predigerplatz 33
8001 Zürich
Opening hours
Montag bis Freitag, 13-18 Uhr
Samstag, 13-16 Uhr
The exhibition
The collection comprises one of the most important visual documentations of Switzerland’s national and cultural heritage. This little-known treasure includes a million drawings, prints, picture postcards, photographs, paintings and sculptures from seven centuries. It extends from Tobias Stimmer, the Master of the Renaissance woodcut, through the 18th-century polymath Salomon Gessner, to the paintings of the writer Gottfried Keller and contemporary artists such as Warja Lavater and Gottfried Honegger.
Originally owned by Zurich’s patrician class, it owes its existence largely to private collecting and generous donations by various individuals. The two main focal areas of the collection are the picture postcards, which are of national importance, and the portraits, which are of European rank. As a result of various bequests and donations by artists, the Department’s profile has recently shifted toward a still small but high-quality collection of 20th-century Zurich art.
The exhibition is accompanied by a publication from Scheidegger & Spiess (ISBN 978-3-85881-491-3).
