Renzo Piano has built for the Beyeler Foundation probably the most civilized art gallery or museum in the world. Serene and tranquil both inside and out, the building is exciting in itself without in any way competing with the art it displays. To celebrate Art 42 Basel, collector members of the ARTKABINETT social network were treated to a VIP-only cocktail party on Friday evening. We particularly enjoyed a garden serenade by some barefoot Swiss boyscouts.
Sitting on the sofa provided and contemplating the Monet on the opposite wall, with an uninterrupted expanse of light oak floor between, the filtered light streaming in from the glazed wall onto the garden and reflecting pool, you have the wonderful sensation of enjoying a Monet in your sitting room, not trudging round an art gallery.
The ceiling is glazed throughout the building, providing indirect natural light in all the galleries. The simple elegance and detailing of the lit ceilings hides a five-foot space above, in which electrically controlled louvers, artificial lighting and the roof of brise-soleil are used to control the light in the galleries.
At the building ends the glass roof extends generously beyond the glass walls and a further row of pillars, over the reflecting pool and the real-life water-lilies outside.
The Fondation Beyeler is a tram ride of 15-20 minutes from the center of Basel (Basle). Take Tram No. 2 from either the Bahnhof SBB (on the Swiss rail network) or the Badischer Bahnhof (on the German rail network), to Riehen Dorf. The museum is right across the street.
The Fondation does not allow photography within the building, and will even require you to lock your camera in a locker rather than carry it with you.
The Beyeler Foundation or Fondation Beyeler with its museum in Riehen near Basel owns and oversees the art collection of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler that was built up by the couple over five decades and placed under the aegis of the foundation in 1982.
The collection was first publicly exhibited in its entirety at the Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid in 1989. By building Renzo Piano's museum structure in 1997, the Beyeler Foundation made its collection permanently accessible to the public.
Some 200 works of classic modernism reflect the views of Hildy and Ernst Beyeler on 20th-century art and highlight features typical of the period from Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh to Pablo Picasso, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and Francis Bacon.
The paintings appear alongside some 25 objects of tribal art from Africa, Oceania and Alaska.
A third of the exhibition space is reserved for special exhibitions staged to complement the permanent collection. In 2006 approximately 340,000 persons visited the museum. Ernst Beyeler (*1921) died on February 25, 2010.
The garden surrounding the museum also periodically serves as a venue for special exhibitions. Christo and Jeanne-Claude veiled 178 trees in the park around the Beyeler Foundation and in the adjacent Berower Park between November 13 and December 14, 1998.
