Kunstmuseum Solothurn

The Kunstmuseum Solothurn, also known as the Art Museum Solothurn, is one of the most significant cultural institutions in the Swiss city of Solothurn. Founded in 1902 as the Museum of Art and Sciences, it has evolved from a general municipal museum into a major art museum with holdings spanning from late medieval painting to contemporary Swiss art. Its collections are widely regarded as among the largest and most valuable in Switzerland, with particular strengths in Swiss art of the 19th and 20th centuries and important works of international modernism.

The museum opened in 1902 under the name Museum der Kunst und Wissenschaften, reflecting its original dual purpose as a repository for both art and natural history. The inaugural collections included not only artworks but also historical artifacts and natural historical specimens assembled by Solothurn naturalists who traveled to foreign continents, bringing back finds and trophies from colonial expeditions. The founding Denkschrift of 1902 reveals the colonial mindset of the era, including an ethnological collection described as objects of the Japanese and an anthropological project researching Swiss skull types. The natural history department, which had occupied some of the same rooms as the art collections, was closed in the 1970s and relocated to the separate Naturmuseum Solothurn, freeing space for the fine arts. Around 1980, three major foundations were incorporated into the museum: the Dübi-Müller Foundation, the Josef Müller Foundation, and the Max Gubler Foundation, consolidating the building's use as a dedicated art museum.

The museum's collection ranges from the late Middle Ages to the present day, with its principal emphasis on Swiss art of the 19th and 20th centuries. It is organized into five divisions: old masters, Swiss landscapes from the 18th through the 20th centuries, Swiss contemporary art, and two collector-based collections focused on international art of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The museum pursues a deliberate acquisition policy of collecting Swiss contemporary art in coherent work groups, maintaining its relevance as a living institution. Generous bequests from Solothurn collectors, notably Oscar Miller, Josef Müller, and Gertrud Dübi-Müller, have substantially enriched the holdings.

The old master collection contains exceptional individual works, foremost among them the Madonna in den Erdbeeren of circa 1425 by the Master of the Paradise Garden, and the Solothurner Madonna of 1522 by Hans Holbein the Younger. Other significant early works include pieces by Hans Asper, Jusepe de Ribera, and Frans Snyders. The landscape collection traces the development of Swiss landscape painting from the late 18th and 19th centuries through Caspar Wolf, François Diday, Alexandre Calame, and Ferdinand Hodler's late Lake Geneva views. Native Solothurn artists are prominently represented, including Otto Frölicher, Frank Buchser, and Cuno Amiet, the latter marking the transition from Art Nouveau to modernism. Early 20th-century Swiss holdings include Giovanni Giacometti, Albert Trachsel, Félix Vallotton, and Hans Berger. The international modern art collections, assembled through the Dübi-Müller and Josef Müller donations, contain paintings by Vincent van Gogh, Gustav Klimt, Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Edgar Degas, Auguste Renoir, and Fernand Léger. Contemporary Swiss art is represented through concentrated groups of works by Robert Müller, Jean Tinguely, Bernhard Luginbühl, Meret Oppenheim, Daniel Spoerri, Dieter Roth, and Markus Raetz, with more recent acquisitions including Roman Signer, Silvie Defraoui, René Zäch, Albrecht Schnider, Felix Stephan Huber, Ian Anüll, Peter Wüthrich, Ingo Giezendanner, Uwe Wittwer, Mario Sala, and Robert Estermann.

The museum occupies a building in Solothurn that was converted after the removal of the natural history collections in the 1970s. The garden grounds still preserve some exotic trees from the natural history period, including a sequoia. In the museum park, Roman Signer realized the kinetic fountain sculpture Stiefel in 2004.

The Kunstmuseum Solothurn is located in the city of Solothurn, Switzerland, and is owned and operated as a public cultural institution. It maintains an active exhibition program combining its permanent holdings with temporary exhibitions of contemporary art. The museum's official website is https://www.kunstmuseum-so.ch.