I neglected to provide context or background on my last transmission. My good friend and occasional travel buddy, Judy, came across a Smithsonian Tour, “Art meets Science”. The highlight of the trip is a visit to CERN. CERN is home to the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the worlds largest and most powerful particle accelerator. The LHC has a nearly 17 mile ring of superconducting magnets with accelerators. CERN’s mission is to discover and understand the composition of the universe and how it works.
Since LHC is down for maintenance, tours can visit the bowels of the site. It’s a science trip for nerdy seniors with the additional perk of touring Switzerland. Our visit to CERN will be on Friday.
Judy and I arrived two days early and had a chance to discover Zurich, sample fine Swiss cuisine and experience designer chocolates.
Since the official start of the tour we’ve visited the Landesmuseum, the national museum of Switzerland shown below, Kunsthaus Zurich and the Zentrum Paul Klee.
The Landesmuseum is situated on a peninsula between the Sihl and Limmat Rivers. The building is impressive with several turrets and beautifully decorated soffits. The docent guided us through
Swiss history from the prehistoric era to adoption of the Swiss constitution in 1848. The museum does a superb job in displaying and illustrating prehistoric collections. The gold bowl below was discovered in 1906 but dates from 1100 BC. It’s a great museum and worth a visit if you’re in Zurich.
The Kunsthaus, Zurich’s art museum has an impressive collection. They’re only able to show 10% of their art. The impressionist were well represented with several Monets, Renoirs and Manets.
One room displayed three of Monet’s large works, inspired by the lily pond at his home, each piece was 6.5’ by 14’.
The art collection included works by Chagall, Van Gough, Serrat, and the original Andy Warhol Campbell Soup Can painting. The docent was delightful, enthusiastic and in enjoyed sharing her love of the art and artists. The Kunsthaus is better than a world class art museum. It’s an Arthaus that filled me with joy and a desire to look and seek out beauty in my surroundings.
Another day in Zurich would have been nice, but there was a schedule to keep so we headed off to the capital city of Bern. Albert Einstein lived in Bern from 1903 through 1905. It was during this time that he finalized and published four papers which would become the basis for modern physics and change fundamental scientific beliefs. Though brilliant, Einstein was an abysmal father and spouse.
Bern has an imperial feel — sturdy and substantial with cobbled streets and impressive buildings. Though the architecture is still predominantly Protestant Swiss, there are large mansions with manicured lawns, elaborate metal balconies and artistic architectural accents.
The town has a wonderful clock tower with mechanical figures including Chronos, a rooster, a parade of bears and a jester. Each hour the crowd is delighted by the crowing rooster, chimes, gongs and twirling bears. Just past the old city gate, there’s a fountain decorated with a colorful ogre who is eating infants. The Bernese mothers used to warn their children not to go beyond the city gates or they would be eaten. The fountain was a visual reminder of a mother’s warning.
The Bern Art museum, the Zentrum Paul Klee is located on the outskirts of the city. The building, designed by Italian architect, Renzo Piano was opened in 2005. The exterior is fluid and reminiscent of the movement in some of Paul Klee’s works. The complex is located along a river and has wonderful greenery with excellent natural light on the main level.
The museum had an exhibit titled, Beyond Laughter and Tears; Klee, Chaplin and Sonderegger. Conceptually, it was thought provoking. Paul Klee is a well known Swiss born artist who was important in the Bauhaus movement. He was a teacher and an innovator creating art with varying techniques and media. He is known as a satirist. His art was labeled as “degenerate” by the Nazis.
The exhibition sought to explore how the artists looked at life. Klee’s works dominated the exhibit with Charlie Chaplin’s movies playing in the wings. Sonderegger was an illustrator and caricaturist. He had a close friendship with Klee and they mutually inspired each other into exploring the macabre and twisted nature of man. Their art is eerie and sometimes a bit grotesque. It doesn’t horrify the viewer, but it surprised me and made me think. I’m glad I had the opportunity to see the exhibit and equally glad that it’s all staying safely behind the locked doors of a museum in Bern.
I’ll leave you with Exuberance, a work done by Paul Klee in 1939. See you in Geneva!