Barbara Basting

Barbara Basting

Barbara Basting worked as a cultural editor and currently heads the visual arts division in the City of Zurich’s Culture Department.

Calame’s awe-inspiring Alpine views

Barbara Basting 09.03.2023 Alexandre Calame is considered one of the fathers of Alpine landscape painting. And it all started, figuratively speaking, with a storm.
Calame’s feel for Alpine nature influenced many 19th century artists. This painting of the region surrounding Lake Lucerne dates back to 1852.

Victims of Labour – a memorial that broke the mould

Barbara Basting 24.01.2023 Artists were among the many to draw inspiration from the opening of the Gotthard railway tunnel 140 years ago. Prominent Ticino sculptor Vincenzo Vela created a contemporaneous memorial to those lost during its construction, entitled Victims of Labour. This key work was not particularly well received at the time, however.
Vincenzo Vela's Victims of Labour memorial in Airolo.

The two graves of Ulrich von Hutten

Barbara Basting 07.10.2022 Humanist, reformer and freedom fighter Ulrich von Hutten (1488-1523) died on the island of Ufenau in Lake Zurich, to which he had fled as a victim of religious and political persecution. The urge to dedicate a monument to him has inspired poets and artists alike.
Caspar David Friedrich, Hutten’s Grave, 1823 (detail).

King, servant, coral diver

Barbara Basting 06.07.2022 Africans have been present in Europe for centuries. If you keep your eyes peeled as you stroll around the art museums of Europe, you’ll encounter them depicted in a wide variety of roles.
Jacopo Zucchi’s allegory of the discovery of America, 1585 (detail).

A marvellous fairy named Electricity

Barbara Basting 25.04.2022 Created by French artist Raoul Dufy (1877-1953) for the Electricity Pavilion at the 1937 Paris World’s Fair, the monumental mural “La Fée électricité” is a celebration of technological progress.
Raoul Dufy’s “La Fée électricité” in the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris.