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<\/p>\nArt Basel, the art world\u2019s premiere art fair, is once again upon us, returning to its namesake Swiss city from June 19 to 22, with VIP days on the June 17 and 18. While there\u2019s plenty of art to see at the fair, we recommend getting out of the Messe and into the city for a bit. There, an abundance of top-tier exhibitions await, from a recently rediscovered nightlife scene by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner at the Kunstmuseum Basel to a major survey of Vija Clemins\u2019s work at the Fondation Beyeler.<\/p>\n
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Ernst Ludwig Kirchner at Kunstmuseum Basel<\/p>\n
While in Basel, you must make a pilgrimage to see Ernst Ludwig Kirchner\u2019s long-lost Tanz im Variet\u00e9 (1911). This work\u2019s public reappearance after a century in private hands is a genuine art historical event. Acquired at Ketterer Kunst in June 2024 for \u20ac6.96 million (approx. $7.5 million) by the Im Obersteg Foundation, the painting was subsequently restored after surviving both wartime concealment and physical damage by occupying soldiers.<\/p>\n
Kirchner, captivated by dance and drawn to Black models and performers, made dozens of sketches from nightlife scenes, which he later transformed into iconic works like Tanz im Variet\u00e9. A striking tribute to Berlin\u2019s prewar cabaret scene, the work captures a so-called cakewalk performance between a Black male dancer and a white female partner, set against a dreamlike theater backdrop. It reflects Kirchner\u2019s fascination with movement, modernity, and the expressive potential of the human body\u2014particularly outside bourgeois norms.\u2014Kate Brown<\/p>\n
Medardo Rosso, \u201cInventing Modern Sculpture\u201d at Kunstmuseum Basel\u00a0<\/p>\n
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Medardo Rosso, Enfant au soleil (1891\u20131892) featured in \u201cInventing Modern Sculpture\u201d at Kunstmuseum Basel. Credit: Museo Medardo Rosso, Barzio. Photo: Max Ehrengruber.<\/p>\n
French poet and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire called Medardo Rosso (1858\u20131928)<\/a> \u201cthe greatest living sculptor\u201d in 1918, yet the Turin-born artist has not received the same recognition as his contemporary Auguste Rodin. The Kunstmuseum Basel aims to change that with its exhibition \u201cInventing Modern Sculpture,\u201d which features around 50 sculptures and 250 photographs and drawings. This retrospective explores Rosso\u2019s pioneering artistic approach at the turn of the century and highlights his lasting influence on contemporary art by displaying works by over 60 artists alongside his own. This is Switzerland\u2019s first major Rosso exhibition in 20 years, showcasing rarely seen works from outside Italy\u2014a must-see for anyone visiting Basel. The exhibition runs through August 10. \u2014Vivienne Chow<\/p>\n Maison Clearing<\/p>\n The pastoral home of Maison Clearing. Photo courtesy Clearing.<\/p>\n The Clearing<\/a> gallery has taken part in the last three editions of Art Basel, but this time the New York and Los Angeles outfit has opted instead to set up shop in a capacious-looking house about 10 minutes from the Messeplatz, at Bannwartweg 39. (Mark it<\/a> on your map now.) Works by more than 40 artists will be on offer in its many rooms\u2014and its gardens, which measures an astonishing 10,000 square feet.<\/p>\n Notable names include Sebastian Black, Violet Dennison, Ryan Foerster, Tobias Kaspar, Zak Kitnick, and Anne Libby. Writer Olamiju Fajemisin, who recently joined the firm as its director of programming, will curate. Maison Clearing, as the project is titled, will include screenings in the residence\u2019s attic and al fresco dining. A nice bonus: While a ticket to Art Basel runs 69 Swiss francs (about $84) this year, admission is free.\u2014Andrew Russeth<\/p>\n Thomas Ott at Cartoonmuseum Basel<\/p>\n Thomas Ott at his solo show \u201cFrom Scratch\u201d (2025) at Cartoonmuseum Basel. \u00a9 Cartoonmuseum Basel. Photo: Derek Li Wan Po.<\/p>\n A visit to Cartoonmuseum Basel may not be the first stop for the typical Art Basel crowd, but it\u2019s well worth exploring. Located in Basel\u2019s old town, the museum has been housed in a building renovated by Herzog and de Meuron and is featured in this year\u2019s Art Basel VIP program.<\/p>\n During the fair week, the museum is presenting \u201cFrom Scratch,\u201d the first museum retrospective of award-winning artist and comic book creator Thomas Ott. Born in Zurich in 1966, Ott is celebrated in the German-speaking comics world, debuting with Tales of Error (1989). Known for his masterful scratchboarding and wordless storytelling, Ott creates dark, haunting worlds. He is also an animated filmmaker. The exhibition runs through June 21, and Ott will host two signing sessions at I Never Read, Art Book Fair Basel from June 18 to 21 at Kaserne Basel. \u2014V.C.<\/p>\n Ser Serpas at Kunsthalle Basel<\/p>\n Ser Serpas in her studio. Courtesy de Pinault Collection. Photo : Florent Michel<\/p>\n In a recent New Yorker profile, Serpas was described as a trash-art assemblagist. Put another way, the Los Angeles native has developed an art practice centered on collecting found objects and reimagining them as readymades so transient they seem as if they could vanish as quickly as they appeared. Her recent show at Bourse de Commerce\u2013Pinault Collection in Paris was haunting with its dreamlike arrangement of sculptures and paintings set in an attic-like space accompanied by an ambient soundtrack.<\/p>\n For her upcoming exhibition at Kunsthalle Basel, \u201cOf My Life,\u201d Serpas will present both paintings and sculptures, along with a performative element developed in collaboration with the Margo Korableva Performance Theater from Tbilisi, where she once lived. The theater will reenact select works from its repertoire, engaging directly with Serpas\u2019s sculptures. This show is likely to have particular depth, given that Kunsthalle Basel director Mohamed Almusibli and Serpas have a collaborative history; they co-founded the project space Cherish in Geneva, Switzerland.\u2014K.B.<\/p>\n Ir\u00e8ne Zurkinden at Kulturstiftung Basel H. Geiger<\/p>\n Ir\u00e8ne Zurkinden. Courtesy the Estate of Ir\u00e8ne Zurkinden<\/p>\n This Swiss painter is finally receiving an overdue homecoming. While long recognized in Swiss art circles, Zurkinden\u2019s work has been under-appreciated internationally, despite her significant contributions to 20th-century European modernism. That\u2019s beginning to change, however. At last year\u2019s At Art Basel, Meredith Rosen showcased five oil paintings and 12 drawings spanning 1930 to 1955. Now, this major institutional exhibition\u2014the first of its kind in nearly 40 years\u2014will offer fresh insights into her practice.<\/p>\n Born and based in Basel, Zurkinden spent formative years in Paris, like her friend Meret Oppenheim, where she absorbed the influences of French modernism and Surrealism. Her work often depicts women in solitary yet empowered positions, or in intimate domestic settings. A member of the Basler K\u00fcnstlergruppe 33 and a close companion of the surrealist Meret Oppenheim, she painted the celebrated artist\u2019s portrait several times.\u2014K.B.<\/p>\n Vija Celmins at the Fondation Beyeler<\/p>\n Vija Celmins, Lamp #1, 1964. \u00a9 Vija Celmins, Courtesy Matthew Marks Gallery Photo: Aaron Wax<\/p>\n Vija Celmins exhibitions are exceedingly rare pleasures. So far this decade, the gimlet-eyed artist has had a grand total of two: one at Matthew Marks Gallery in New York, where she is based, and the other at Glenstone in Potomac, Md. Now the Beyeler will stage a full survey<\/a> that includes her tender and disarmingly realistic paintings of subjects like waves and star-filled skies, as well as her rare sculptural pairings, which set a found object (a small stone, say) alongside a copy of gobsmacking verisimilitude.<\/p>\n Viewing Celmins\u2019s work can be humbling, as she invites you to look harder and harder, and then to grapple with your limits. (That great line from Sturtevant could have been said by her: \u201cI create vertigo.\u201d) Her 2018 retrospective at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, curated by Gary Garrels and Ian Alteveer, remains one of the most satisfying, and beguiling, shows I have ever seen. Who knows when we will get another one?\u2014A.R.<\/p>\n \u201cHistory of Pharmacy\u201d at the Pharmaziemuseum Basel<\/p>\n A display at the Pharmaziemuseum Basel. Photo courtesy Pharmaziemuseum Basel<\/p>\n![\"A](\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ch\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/MaisonClearing-1-1024x682.png\"){kind=spacer}
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