Kunsthaus Zug

Profile

The Collection - Treasure Chamber and Laboratory
The Kunsthaus Zug collection includes various areas ranging from classical modern art to contemporary art and art of the surrounding region. For many years now, the collection has been the major focus of the Kunsthaus's varied activities. Among the holdings is the most prominent collection of works of Viennese Modernism outside Austria, the Kamm Collection, which forms the Kunsthaus's "treasure chamber". A broad definition of the term "collection" comprises works in the public realm. With Project: Collection, the museum has developed a model - presumably unparalleled anywhere in the world - for collecting contemporary art, turning the Kunsthaus into a "laboratory" in the process.

The collection is presented in temporary and thematical exhibitions.

Classical Modern Art and Viennese Modernism
The Kunsthaus takes care of what is probably the most comprehensive collection of Viennese Modernism outside Austria. It comprises numerous works by some thirty artists. Highlights are the groups of works by Herbert Boeckl , Richard Gerstl, Josef Hoffmann, Gustav Klimt , Oskar Kokoschka , Egon Schiele and Fritz Wotruba .

A typical characteristic is the connection between fine and applied arts. Furniture, silver, drinking glasses, ceramics, but also architectural drawings and ornament designs from the Wiener Werkstätte (Viennese workshops) form a special focus. Together the objects provide a multi-faceted, concentrated impression of the Viennese Modern Movement of the early twentieth century.

The majority of these works belong to the Stiftung Sammlung Kamm (Foundation Collection Kamm) at the Kunsthaus. The Kamm family of Zug began collecting art in the 1950s. They were advised by the Austrian sculptor Fritz Wotruba (1907-1975), who had made the Kamms' acquaintance during his exile in Zug (1939-1945). The unusual collection can also be considered an artist's collection. Numerous sculptures and drawings represent the oeuvre of the most important Austrian sculptor of the modern period, who maintained close ties with the city's art society - the Zuger Kunstgesellschaft - until his death.
Selected works on paper represent the modern movement in France and Germany and form consciously chosen points of reference to the Viennese holdings. Groups of works by Fernand Léger , Toulouse-Lautrec, Jacques Villon, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner , August Macke , Oskar Schlemmer , Kurt Schwitters and others.

Project: Collection
Project: Collection is the term designating long-term cooperations with artists of different nationalities. The concept emerged from a critical investigation of the problems associated with collecting contemporary art (transitoriness, exploding production, shortage of space). It is based on the idea that it is not material possession but continuity and the site specific aspect as well as the possibility of in-depth examination that represent primary aspects of collecting. Slowness is a professed aim, ephemerality is accepted. In this context the Kunsthaus does not understand itself as a supposedly neutral institution, but as an active partner of the artists. In some cases, the process-oriented, sustainable projects involve the public space and reach a broad public. Tadashi Kawamata (Tokyo) and Richard Tuttle (New York and New Mexico) were active in Zug from 1996 to 2000, Pavel Pepperstein (Moscow) from 1998 to 2002. Comprehensive publications on their activities were produced. Olafur Eliasson (Berlin and Copenhagen) began a long-term project in 2003.