“IT'S ALMOST TOO BEAUTIFUL HERE”... ON LAKE THUN
AUGUST MACKE AND SWITZERLAND

August Macke’s (1887–1914) complete works are among the outstanding achievements of early modernism in 20th-century art. The months he spent in the idyllic and fascinating landscape around Lake Thun are considered a high point in his artistic development. “It’s almost too beautiful here,” he wrote to his patron Bernhard Koehler from Lake Thun to Berlin in October 1913. The exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Thun focuses on the young German Expressionist’s stay at Haus Rosengarten in Oberhofen from October 1913 to June 1914. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I, in which the artist fell after only a few weeks, Macke combined color, form, and expressive values into a synthesis that still fascinates us today, thus developing his very own style of painting. The exhibition also highlights Macke’s special relationship with Switzerland in general. A visit to the Kunstmuseum Basel in 1907, for example, gave Macke the decisive impetus in his search for his own artistic path, which marked the beginning of his experimentation with modern artistic means and thus his departure from an academic style of painting. A relationship with Switzerland also developed through his friendship with fellow artist Louis Moilliet.

A close artistic exchange developed at Lake Thun, which, as can also be seen, gave Moilliet’s work new impetus. An excursion within the presentation is the trip to Tunis by August Macke, Paul Klee, and Louis Moilliet in April 1914, which was planned together at Lake Thun and undertaken from there. Pictures by Paul Klee, Ferdinand Hodler, Cuno Amiet, and others show how much the landscape at Lake Thun and the surrounding area fascinated not only Macke but also other artists. An extensive catalog (German/English) with texts by Ina Ewers-Schultz, Klara Drenker Nagels, Andreas Gabelmann, Helen Hirsch, and Marianne Keller-Tschirren accompanies the innovative exhibition concept (Hatje Cantz Verlag, ISBN 978-3-7757-3542-1), published by the Kunstmuseum Thun and the August Macke Haus. The exhibition is being held in cooperation with the August Macke Haus in Bonn.