Felix Baumann

Felix Andreas Baumann (born on August 17, 1937 in Uetikon am See ) is a Swiss art historian .

Life

Felix Baumann came to the Kunsthaus Zürich as a research assistant in 1965 . From 1969 to 1971 he worked there as a conservator and was then deputy director of the house until 1976. He then headed the Kunsthaus Zürich as director until 2000. During his tenure he organized numerous exhibitions, including highly acclaimed shows on Henri Matisse , Joan Miró , Salvador Dalí , Edgar Degas and Paul Cézanne . Baumann was also able to expand the collection considerably. This included building up a collection of Dadaist works as well as purchasing works by contemporary artists Jackson Pollock , Barnett Newman , Francis Bacon , Bruce Nauman , Joseph Beuys , Georg Baselitz , AR Penck , Martin Disler and Cy Twombly . Baumann has also expanded the group of works by the painter Giovanni Segantini in the Kunsthaus. During his term of office, there were also significant donations to the Kunsthaus. These include the old masters' collection by Betty and David Koetser or the collections of Johanna and Walter L. Wolf and Walter Haefner with works from the 19th and 20th centuries. After leaving the Kunsthaus Zürich, Baumann was entrusted with the conception of further exhibitions at various European museums.

Publications (selection)

• Chagall , exhibition catalog Kunsthaus Zürich 1967
• Otto Meister , publication for the exhibition at the Kunsthaus Zürich 1971, together with S. Gotti-Huber and Hans Robert Hahnloser
• George Segal exhibition catalog Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen 1972, together with Dagmar Hnikova
• The Erbario Carrarese and the pictorial tradition of the Tractatus de herbis. A contribution to the history of the representation of plants in the transition from the late Middle Ages to the early Renaissance. Bern 1974 (= Bern writings on art. Volume 12)
• Figurative Swiss art of the 20th century from the Werner Coninx Foundation , exhibition catalog Helmhaus Zürich 1975
• Pablo Picasso , 1976
• Verena Loewensberg , exhibition catalog Zurich 1981
• Henri Matisse , exhibition catalog Kunsthaus Zürich and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 1982
• Kunsthaus Zurich , 1984
• Joan Miró , exhibition catalog Kunsthaus Zürich and Kunsthalle Düsseldorf 1987
• Degas, the portraits , exhibition catalog Kunsthaus Zürich and Kunsthalle Tübingen 1994, together with Marianne Karabelnik-Matta
• Cézanne, completed, unfinished , exhibition catalog Kunstforum Wien and Kunsthaus Zürich 2000, together with Friedrich Teja Bach
• Longing for Italy, Corot and early open-air painting, 1780–1850 , exhibition catalog Museum Langmatt 2004
• Cézanne - Departure into Modernism , exhibition catalog Museum Folkwang 2004
• Cézanne & Giacometti: Paths of Doubt , exhibition catalog Louisiana Museum of Modern Art 2008, together with Poul Erik Tøjner

Awards

• 2000: Commandeur des Arts et Lettres

Web links

• Entry on Felix Baumann at www.whoswho.de
• Felix Baumann said goodbye as Kunsthaus director , article from September 1, 2000 at www.swissinfo.ch

Individual evidence

1. ^ Article award for Kunsthausdirektor Baumann , article in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung of July 22, 2000.