Her sensual Nanas-buxom, colorful female figures laid the foundation for her international success beyond the art world: Niki de Saint Phalle. But the self-taught artist's creative spectrum is much broader, and her unconventional oeuvre, ranging from painting and drawing to assemblages, performances, theatre, film, and architecture, is more subversive and critical of society than is widely assumed. Based on her efforts to process her own feelings, she addressed social and political issues, critically questioning institutions and role models in ways that are as relevant today as they have ever been. The exhibition and the publication shed new light on the artist's exceptional personality and uncover the wide-ranging oeuvre of the popular outsider-that is always surprising and eccentric, emotional, dark and brutal, humorous and cheerful.

French sculptor Aristide Maillol (1861-1944) is sometimes referred to as the "Cezanne of sculpture" as he, like Paul Cezanne in painting, paved the way for abstraction. Though Maillol began as a painter, he produced an impressive collection of sculptures, many featuring women, over the course of his career. This book, published in conjunction with a comprehensive Maillol exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zurich, examines how the male gaze operates in Maillol's art and the changing perceptions of this gaze from the 19th century to today. A photo essay by Franca Candrian contrasts Maillol's Venus au collier with works by modern and contemporary women artists from the Kunsthaus Zurich's collection. An essay by feminist art historian and curator Catherine McCormack explores the presence of art depicting female nudes - in contemporary museums. Supplemented by an introduction by Philippe Buttner, curator of Kunsthaus Zurich's permanent collection, the book thus offers a fresh and unique view of Maillol and his art. Text in English and German.

David Chipperfield's new building for the Kunsthaus Zurich now stands in all its splendour on Zurich's Heimplatz, opposite the old museum building of 1910 designed by Karl Moser. Its opening to the public in October 2021 will make the Kunsthaus Zurich Switzerland's largest art museum. Following the two previous volumes on Kunsthaus Zurich's architectural history and the design for turning it into an art museum for the 21st century, this book documents the genesis of David Chipperfield's extension from proposal through political debates about the entire project to completed structure. It features a foreword by David Chipperfield and an essay by Christoph Felger, executive architect for the project at David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, that discusses the design concept, the promise made with it, and its fulfilment. A conversation between Christoph Felger, the director of the City of Zurich's Building Surveyor's Office Wiebke Roesler, and Kunsthaus Zurich's director Christoph Becker, and architecture critic Sabine von Fischer, as well as numerous illustrations and plans sound out this new volume.

Romanticism, Realism, Impressionism - these are still the most important stylistic labels which acted as slogans for French painting during the 19th century. At that time Delacroix, Courbet, Manet and many others left the "straight and narrow" of painting, the academic-neo-classical manner. Highly controversial at the time, today these painters are celebrated worldwide as precursors of Modernism. The situation is very different when it comes to the Salon painters like Meissonier, Cabanel, Gerome and Bouguereau, who were highly regarded at the time. Today they have been consigned to the fringes, especially in the German-speaking region - unjustifiably, because they play an outstanding role with regard to our understanding of developments in art at the time.

In October 2021, David Chipperfield’s new extension of the Kunsthaus Zürich will open for the public. The new wing doubles the museum’s space for art display. Perhaps more importantly, it offers the opportunity to present larger parts of the museum’s permanent collection in a new light and in new groupings. The Chipperfield building is now home to the renowned Merzbacher, Hubert Looser, and Emil Bührle collections, all on permanent loan to the museum. The formidable selection of French impressionist paintings in the Emil Bührle Collection combined with Kunsthaus Zürich’s own holdings of that period constitutes the largest display of impressionist art outside France. In addition, Surrealism, art from the post-war period, Pop Art, and contemporary art now have the prominent space they deserve. This new book offers an introduction to the curatorial concept as well as concise essays on key aspects of Kunsthaus Zurich’s permanent collection. Lavishly illustrated with views of the new exhibits and individual art works, it is an attractive invitation to visit Switzerland’s largest art museum.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is adored worldwide as a revolutionary painter and loved for his collages, or papiers découpés, the icons of his late work. His paintings and drawings for a long time overshadowed his achievements as a sculptor. Yet his Back Series, four bas-reliefs showing a nude, created between 1908 and 1930, are widely recognised as a milestone in modern sculpture. Starting out from the naturalistic depiction, Matisse gradually transformed it to reach a radically abstracted figure. Each of the four original plaster casts represents a decisive moment of this artistic process. This transformative process has parallels in Matisse's painting and drawing. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at Kunsthaus Zürich marking the artist's 150th anniversary, this is the first book to explore the relation between metamorphosis and feedback in both main fields of the artist's work. Documents of his diverse sources of inspiration for his sculptures - photographs of nudes, examples from African and ancient art - as well as images featuring Matisse at work as sculptor, round out this volume. It is a welcome addition to any art library, highlighting the llesser known side of this modern master. Text in French.

The completion of David Chipperfield's distinctive new building for Kunsthaus Zurich in December 2020 has nearly doubled the museum's overall space. In combination with the preceding refurbishments of the earlier buildings, this has made it fit to meet the demands of an art museum in the 21st century. A sequel to The Architectural History of the Kunsthaus Zurich 1910-2020, this book comprehensively introduces the new Kunsthaus Zurich, demonstrating how the task of building an art museum in the 21st century can be fulfilled. Concise texts, statements by protagonists and by future users and visitors as well as numerous illustrations trace the project's evolution and the construction process and look at the completed building from various perspectives. The book also highlights what features contemporary museum infrastructure has to offer and the architectural and urban design qualities it requires, and what financial and organisational challenges the entire undertaking implied. A conversation between experts exploring the expanded museum's impact on its immediate neighbourhood and Zurich's urban fabric as a whole rounds out the volume.

David Chipperfield's new building for the Kunsthaus Zurich now stands in all its splendour on Zurich's Heimplatz, opposite the old museum building of 1910 designed by Karl Moser. Its opening to the public in October 2021 will make the Kunsthaus Zurich Switzerland's largest art museum. Following the two previous volumes on Kunsthaus Zurich's architectural history and the design for turning it into an art museum for the twenty-first century, this book documents the genesis of David Chipperfield's extension from proposal through political debates about the entire project to completed structure. It features a foreword by David Chipperfield and an essay by Christoph Felger, executive architect for the project at David Chipperfield Architects Berlin, that discusses the design concept, the promise made with it, and its fulfilment. A conversation between Christoph Felger, the director of the City of Zurich's Building Surveyor's Office Wiebke Roesler, and Kunsthaus Zurich's director Christoph Becker, and architecture critic Sabine von Fischer, as well as numerous illustrations and plans sound out this new volume. Text in French.

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) is adored worldwide as a revolutionary painter and loved for his collages, or papiers découpés, the icons of his late work. His paintings and drawings for a long time overshadowed his achievements as a sculptor. Yet his Back Series, four bas-reliefs showing a nude, created between 1908 and 1930, are widely recognised as a milestone in modern sculpture. Starting out from the naturalistic depiction, Matisse gradually transformed it to reach a radically abstracted figure. Each of the four original plaster casts represents a decisive moment of this artistic process. This transformative process has parallels in Matisse's painting and drawing. Published in conjunction with a major exhibition at Kunsthaus Zürich marking the artist's 150th anniversary, this is the first book to explore the relation between metamorphosis and feedback in both main fields of the artist's work. Documents of his diverse sources of inspiration for his sculptures - photographs of nudes, examples from African and ancient art - as well as images featuring Matisse at work as sculptor, round out this volume. It is a welcome addition to any art library, highlighting the lesser known side of this modern master.

The completion of David Chipperfield's distinctive new building for Kunsthaus Zurich in December 2020 has nearly doubled the museum's overall space. In combination with the preceding refurbishments of the earlier buildings, this has made it fit to meet the demands of an art museum in the 21st century. A sequel to The Architectural History of the Kunsthaus Zurich 1910-2020, this book comprehensively introduces the new Kunsthaus Zurich, demonstrating how the task of building an art museum in the 21st century can be fulfilled. Concise texts, statements by protagonists and by future users and visitors as well as numerous illustrations trace the project's evolution and the construction process and look at the completed building from various perspectives. The book also highlights what features contemporary museum infrastructure has to offer and the architectural and urban design qualities it requires, and what financial and organisational challenges the entire undertaking implied. A conversation between experts exploring the expanded museum's impact on its immediate neighbourhood and Zurich's urban fabric as a whole rounds out the volume. Text in French.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner's move from Dresden to Berlin in 1911 marked a turning point in his art. Under the influence of the most modern metropolis in Europe, during the years between 1912 and 1915 the artist created works whose exaggerated and condensed styl e could be regarded as a true metaphor for the attitude to life during the early years of the twentieth century. During this time of rapid change the capital of the German Empire promised progress and countless opportunities, but also danger and profound e xistential fear. The city was not only the centre of industry, which continued to grow unchecked, but also of increasing motorised traffic and, with three million inhabitants, it was the biggest "city of tenement blocks" in Europe. But Berlin was also the metropolis of the arts, of hedonism, prostitution and accordingly of a sexuality that could be lived to the full as never before. Berlin vibrated with challenging energy and intellectual challenges. In this melting pot of opportunities and risks Kirchner c reated pictures of breathless, existential directness which he launched unerringly at the conventions of the Wilhelminian age. The main area of focus of the publication will lie on this dialectic and the resulting tension. It will reproduce Kirchner's grea test masterpieces, and in order to demonstrate the profound changes in his style, a representative selection of his early works from Dresden will also be shown alongside the paintings, drawing s and prints from the time in Berlin.