PUBLICATIONS

This was the full title—Swiss Art of the 1970s and 1980s. Regionalism and Internationalism. An overview of a new attitude in the Swiss art of the 1970s, edited by Martin Kunz—of a two-volume catalogue, in German and Italian editions, the cover of the former in yellow and blue, of the latter in red and blue. In Volume I, Martin Kunz, Director of Kunstmuseum Luzern, presented the thirty most significant Swiss artists of the 1970s in the fields of video art and performance. Kunstmuseum Luzern presented a rich program of projections and performances, all documented in this first catalogue, for which five artists were entrusted with the opening section of the Prolog: Franz Eggenschwiller, Franz Gertsch, Friedrich Kuhn, Dieter Roth, and André Thomkins. Volume II finds its theme in painting and sculpture and presents itself as a true and proper artists’ book in which fifteen artists are involved, each with a brief section of sixteen pages, replete with drawings, texts and a biography. For the group exhibition, Martin Kunz allotted them each a space with drawings, paintings, and sculptures: John M. Armleder, Luciano Castelli, Martin Disler, Marianne Eigenheer, Heiner Kielholz, Urs Lüthi, Chasper Otto Melcher, Markus Raetz, Claude Sandoz, Jean-Frédéric Schnyder, Hugo Suter, Niele Toroni, Aldo Walker, Ilse Weber, and Rolf Winnewisser. After Lucerne, both the German and Italian versions of the show went on tour, and were present at the Rheinisches Landesmuseum, Bonn (co-curator Klaus Honnef); the Neue Galerie, Graz (co-curator Wilfried Skreiner); the Galleria d'arte Moderna di Bologna (co-curator Renato Barilli); and in 1982 the seat of Genoa’s Assessorato alla Cultura, at Palazzo Bianco e Rosso. At all of these venues, Martin Kunz was responsible for the installation of the exhibition, in collaboration with the curators of the individual museums, given the complexity of the overall project, especially since some of the artists (Niele Toroni, for example) were desirous of working on site on their various works and performances. The entire project was made possible thanks to the generous participation of Pro Helvetia, the Swiss Foundation for the Arts.

Exhibition catalogue, Galleria Comunale d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, June 27 - August 31, 1981. Edited by Martin Kunz. Texts by Franco Solmi, Renato Barilli, and Martin Kunz