Ferdinand Hodler 25 June – 10 October 1999 From June 25 to October 10, 1999, the Kunsthalle of the Hypo-Kulturstiftung presented a comprehensive exhibition of the Swiss painter Ferdinand Hodler (1853-1918). Since the last major retrospective in 1954, there has been no exhibition of Hodler’s work in southern Germany. In addition to more than a hundred oil paintings, it included forty drawings, watercolors and oil studies. It also helped document the monumental murals Hodler executed for the Hall of Arms in the Swiss National Museum in Zurich (1900), the auditorium of the University of Jena (1909), the meeting hall in Hanover City Hall (1913), and the staircase in the Kunsthaus in Zurich (1916). Along with Félix Vallotton, Ferdinand Hodler is the most important Swiss painter of early modernism. Like no other, he knew how to capture the majestic beauty of his native mountain and lake landscapes in enchanting pictures. He also excelled in the field of figure painting, which is often characterized by symbolist ideas. However, he became known as a history painter, and because he mainly depicted figures and episodes from Swiss history, he is still considered the national painter par excellence in his homeland. An additional exhibition of forty contemporary photographs, put together by the Swiss Foundation for Photography, vividly documented the life and work of this important Swiss artist. The Zurich art historian Rudolf Koella was responsible for the scientific editing of the exhibition and the catalog, which was published by Hirmer-Verlag in Munich. Following Munich, the exhibition was shown at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal. More Less Exhibition Leaflet Past exhibitions of the Kunsthalle
