Home Stories

The Kunstmuseum Thun celebrates its 75th anniversary in 2023. To mark the occasion, we are showing selected works from our collection over the course of the year in an intimate setting, starting with one of our masterpieces, Paul Klee’s Künstlicher Fels (Artificial Rock, 1927). This associative series of works recounts the history of the collection in a new and different way.

The aim of the presentation is to reveal little-known background details, “home stories”, about our holdings. Artistic aspects play a role here – for example when comparing Klee’s Künstlicher Fels to Victor Surbek’s Bergbach (Mountain Stream, 1939) – as well as personal affiliations, including those among Klee, Surbek, and Marguerite Frey-Surbek.

The Kunstmuseum Thun’s collection is the result of collaborative commitment, and it continues to grow through acquisitions, gifts and permanent loans. On the basis of recent additions, we draw parallels here to the history of our collection, in terms of both the provenance of the works and potential new fields for our collecting activities.

In addition to the stories told in the exhibition space about the originals on view, more “Home Stories” can be found here.