Aargau house of art

The Aargauer Kunsthaus is a Swiss art museum founded in 1959, and located in Aarau. The museum collection consists of Swiss art from the 18th century to the present day. History The Aargauer Kunsthaus traces its origins to the founding of the Aargau Art Association in 1860 as a section of the Swiss Art Association. In 1861, the association organised the first Swiss Art Exhibition in Aarau, held in the former Postremise. Over the following decades, the association pursued the establishment of a permanent museum for Swiss art, which was realised in 1959 with the opening of the Aargauer Kunsthaus in Aarau. In 1962, a formal agreement defined the cooperation between the canton and the association, under which the canton assumed ownership. Collection The Aargauer Kunsthaus holds more than 21,000 works, making it one of the most extensive public collections of Swiss art from the 18th century to the present. Works in the museum art collection include artists such as Alberto Giacometti, Jean Tinguely, Richard Long, and Fischli/Weiss. Since 2017, the museum has increasingly incorporated digital mediation formats, including augmented reality and video-based projects. In 2024, it collaborated with the Fantoche animation film festival on the exhibition Re-Mix, in which video artists animated. Building The collection is housed in a building constructed between 1956 and 1959 by local architects Loepfe Hänni and Hänngli. In 2003, the museum was expanded with a new building designed by the architecture firm Herzog & de Meuron.