Art credit Basel-Stadt

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The Basel-Stadt art credit promotes contemporary visual art in the Basel region . Works by regional artists have been purchased since 1919, and the inventory is continuously being expanded. In the interwar period, the loan made available annually to promote the visual arts had the character of an emergency loan that sought to alleviate the material hardship of artists through purchases and art-in-building contracts.

On April 8, 1919, representatives of the Basel Society of Swiss Painters and Sculptors (GSMBA) again submitted a petition to the Basel government council for the establishment of a public art loan . On June 11, 1919, the latter approved a loan of 30,000 francs and the formation of a seven-person art committee, which began its work at the end of November 1919. It was presided over by Fritz Hauser , Director of Education in Basel , who played a key role in the creation of the art loan, and was formed by an honorary secretary, the editor of the National Zeitung Edwin Strub, and the commission members elected by the government council.

The form of awarding and the composition of the jury alone gave rise to a real art credit aesthetic over time. The “Art in Architecture” project was based on the social idea of ​​getting art out of the museums and thus making art directly accessible to the population. The themes and motifs had to be created in generally understandable forms. Abstract and therefore incomprehensible works were undesirable. In addition, the GSMBA Basel, as a professional organization and representative of the “entire artist community”, had secured the sole seat of the artist jurors in the art credit commission. The artistic direction became known as the «picture book style».

In 1934, Gruppe 33 campaigned for it to be represented on the Art Credit Commission. However, these efforts were rejected by the incumbent members from the GSMBA. As a result, Group 33 took the negative decision to the Federal Supreme Court, where it was ultimately dismissed in 1935. An agreement was only reached in 1939, which was regulated by a minority seat in 1940 and thus the monopoly position in Basel's cultural policy was finally broken. The GSMBA jurors reciprocated for their loss of power by censoring the applicants from group 33 in art credit competitions. While their share of the annual budget for art credits was 20 to 25 percent up to 1934, it fell to less than ten percent in the decisive years of 1934/35. The clashes between the two groups was rightly referred to as a "windmill war", because behind it the contours of a more threatening culture war emerged: the art-agitation of the Basel frontists . The pressure and polemics from the right-wing camp ultimately led to the end of the dispute between GSMBA and Group 33. In 1930, Jean-Jacques Lüscher painted the group picture for the meeting of the Basel Art Credit Commission .

His tasks also include building, maintaining, documenting, researching and disseminating the around 4,700 works of art (as of 2019), which comprise the cantonal art collection. The collection includes works of all artistic genres and media. Priorities are set based on the historically changing strengths of regional art.

In 2015, the canton of Basel-Stadt made 520,000 francs available for the art loan. This amount includes the work fees up to the purchases for the collection.

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  1. ↑ Rudolf Kaufmann: The artistic life in Basel from October 1, 1945 to September 30, 1946. Basler Jahrbuch 1947, accessed on June 20, 2019 .
  2. ^ Presidential Department of the Canton of Basel-Stadt: History, Art Credit Basel-Stadt. Retrieved June 5, 2019 .
  3. ^ Art credit Basel-Stadt, "Aid to Artists in War Times" In: Architektur und Kunst , Vol. 28, 1941, p. 14
  4. ↑ Edwin Strub: Basel's art credit. Retrieved October 21, 2019 .
  5. ↑ Basel-Stadt Education Department: 75 years of Basel-Stadt art credit . Schwabe Verlag, 1974, ISBN 3-7965-0968-1 .
  6. ^ Konrad Bitterli: Art Credit Basel-Stadt. Retrieved November 11, 2019 .
  7. ^ Konrad Bitterli: The conflict between group 33 and the GSMBA. Retrieved November 11, 2019 .
  8. ↑ Jean-Jacques Lüscher: Meeting of the Basel Art Credit Commission, 1930. Retrieved on October 11, 2019 .
  9. ↑ Presidential Department of the Kantos Basel-Stadt: Collection holdings - Artists represented in the collection. Retrieved June 10, 2019 .