Franziska Rogger23.04.2024Born in Russia, Ida Hoff became one of the first women to attend university in Switzerland around 1900. In addition to pursuing a career in medicine, she was a staunch advocate of women’s rights, guided by her feminist conscience and a penchant for irreverence. She found an outlet for the latter at the second Swiss Congress for Women's Interests in 1921, where she wittily subjected Ferdinand Hodler’s painting “The Day” to a fresh new feminist interpretation.
Katrin Brunner14.03.2024Gripped by religious hysteria, a group of believers killed two women in Wildensbuch in 1823. The blood-soaked deed still has the power to shock today.
Joël László08.03.2024Members of the Anabaptist movement in and around Zurich were persecuted and executed for their convictions during the Reformation. They continue to be disparaged and stereotyped to this day. But a look at the historical sources reveals a different picture ‒ that of a defiant movement in which women also played a key role.
Barbara Basting29.02.2024Who paints older women? A look at art history shows that painters have always struggled with the subject matter and that they usually needed a pretext to even depict them at all.
Simon Engel15.02.2024Sport always reflects gender roles and images. Ice hockey being a rather extreme example. This is largely due to the way in which the sport has evolved.
Barbara Basting28.12.2023The Reformation brought stricter social mores to many places in Europe, and artists had to adapt if they didn’t want to lose commissions. But these social mores were not popular with everyone – as revealed by this painting by Hans Bock in Basel’s Kunstmuseum.
Katrin Brunner06.12.2023Despite the dangers, Jean Bucher, boss of a Swiss manufacturer of agricultural machinery, travelled to Germany several times during the First World War. With him he carried his travel diaries, in which he impressively captured daily life in a country at war.
Michael van Orsouw04.12.2023Marie Josse d’Hemel was a distinguished lady who married a Lucerne patrician. She is also said to have died twice. The first time a gravedigger wanted to steal her expensive clothes, which prompted her to return from the dead and live on for another 20 years – a cautionary tale for any would-be grave robbers.