The Collection.
From Fra Angelico to Pablo Picasso, from Ferdinand Hodler to Meret Oppenheim

Kunstmuseum Bern houses an important art collection spanning the late Middle Ages to the present day. The collection’s display features selected works in rotating displays.

Old Wing
The basement level features Modernism’s key avant-garde movements: Cubism, Expressionism, Surrealism and abstract art. Highlights include Pablo Picasso’s Violon accroché au mur, Meret Oppenheim’s Verzauberung and Piet Mondrian’s Tableau No. II, with Black and Grey. The display is complemented by a selection of works by the Bern artist Adolf Wölfli from the holdings of the Adolf Wölfli Foundation.

Two ground-floor galleries are dedicated to works by Swiss artists of the 19^th and early 20^th centuries. These include Ferdinand Hodler’s renowned Symbolist paintings Die Nacht and Der Tag as well as works by Albert Anker and Arnold Böcklin. Two smaller galleries showcase highlights of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist painting, including Paul Cézanne’s Portrait de l’artiste au chapeau à large bord, Vincent van Gogh’s Tournesols fanés and Henri Matisse’s La blouse bleue.

On the upper floor, the exhibition Life in Full. Old Masters from Duccio to Liotard assembles extensive holdings from the collection, spanning the 13^th to 18^th century, including devotional images from the Italian Renaissance of the 13^th and 14^th centuries, elaborate altarpieces by the Bernese Carnation Masters and Niklaus Manuel as well as masterpieces from the Baroque in Bern (running until 27 September 2026).

New Wing
The basement level juxtaposes paintings by renowned representatives of Abstract Expressionism – such as Jackson Pollock’s Brown and Silver II and Lee Krasner’s Forest No. 2 – with works of abstract and Concrete Art, such as those by Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Max Bill.