18 July 2020 – 13 December 2020

The Medieval & the Modern – Fotografien aus der Sammlung Ruth und Peter Herzog

For centuries church towers served to make a city’s wealth and power visible for miles around. In the nineteenth century secular buildings began vying with them for attention. Some impressive photographs bring that time of technical feats and hopes back to life.

The small exhibition presents a selection of images from the period 1840 to 1910. This was an epoch defined by industrialization, inventiveness and belief in progress, when new materials and building techniques were enabling architects and engineers to build increasingly audacious structures. Elegant exhibition halls and magnificent railway stations thus became the cathedrals of modernity. The then still nascent medium of photography recorded this revolution, artfully staging the old alongside the new.

As part of a cooperation between the Basel museums and the «Jacques Herzog und Pierre de Meuron Kabinett, Basel», further treasures from the «Fotosammlung Ruth und Peter Herzog» are being exhibited simultaneously in the Kunstmuseum and, from September, in the Antikenmuseum. The Kunstmuseum has titled its survey show «The Incredible World of Photography», while the «Oriental Grand Tour» at the Antikenmuseum promises to take visitors on a tour of the Near East.

The small exhibition will be trilingual (German, French, English) and will provide wheelchair access and be accessible via eGuide.