The exhibition Charaktere brings together a large group of important works from the distinguished collections of the Bündner Kunstmuseum and the Kunstmuseum Zug and directs the focus on selected highlights from both collections. The presentation is one of several collaborations, which the Kunsthaus Zug has organised in the last few years, It can be seen as an exemplary working relationship between two Swiss art museums and extends beyond the borders of a confined region in order to activate the potential of two public collections with historical backgrounds in order to show contrasts and similarities between the two.

A defining characteristic of the Bündner Kunstmuseum collection, which has grown over a period of more than one hundred years, is ist concern with landscape. Giovanni Segantini and the expressionist Ernst Ludwig Kirchner searched for and found in Graubünden - from the perspective of city dwellers - an unspoilt countryside. The resulting works shape our image of the Alps to this day. Segantini's oeuvre influenced the young Giovanni Giacometti, and because of Kirchner, Herman Sherer and Albert Müller from Basel came to Davos. Kirchner's expressive art works and Egon Schiele's from Zug respond to the profound, sophisticated group of works from Chur. Equally affected by the Graubünden landscape were Alberto and Diego Giacometti, although both moved in Parisian avant-garde circles. An important theme of the exhibition will be sculpture beginning with Alberto Giacometti and the Austrian sculptor Fritz Wotruba who plays a prominent role in the Zug collection. 

Also shown are contemporary artists from Graubünden, first and foremost the photographers Hans Danuser, Gaudenz Signorell, Guido Baselgia and Ester Vonplon who are confronted with current positions from the art museum Zug. 

Beyond the dialogue between two collections the exhibition Charaktere also gives us the opportunity to think about the handling of historically developed public collections and how they, together with the buildings in which they are housed, establish identiy and define the cultural individuality of a place and of a region. And last but not least it can be seen as a kind of sneak preview to arouse the curiosity of the public concerning the new, larger Bündner Kunstmuseum. 

Opening: 
Wege der Sammlung VI
Saturday, November 28, at 5 pm, in the Auditorium of the Pädagogische Hochschule Zug, Zugerbergstrasse 3, 6301 Zug

Address:
Dr. Matthias Haldemann, Director Kunsthaus Zug, Barbara Gabrielli, Head of Department of Culture, Canton Grisons, Stephan Kunz, Director Bündner Kunstmuseum, Dr. Marco Obrist, Collections Curator Kunsthaus Zug