Artists have always driven innovation by exploring uncharted paths, experimenting with materials, providing alternative narratives, and searching for the unknown. The exhibition New Ideas for Other Times honors this force of creation with works by over 30 artists who have pushed boundaries in one way or another in the 20th and 21st centuries. Based on the framework of positions that von Bartha has been promoting since the beginning, the exhibition, co-curated by Caroline Baumhauer and Stefan von Bartha, will also feature works that complement the gallery’s DNA with additional “new ideas” from the past and present.

The show’s title is borrowed from Maurizio Nannucci’s neon work, which welcomes visitors even before they enter the exhibition. In his career, the Italian artist has produced many neon installations, often playing with words to comment on contemporary society and the arts. New Ideas for Other Times – or New Times for Other Ideas, as one may have seen on other occasions – is a credo and red thread for what the exhibition offers. By juxtaposing and bringing over 100 works from the 1920s to the present in a dialog, the show argues that certain topics, concerns, themes, and materials are recurring over time, while on the other hand, every generation looks at the world through their own eyes and, therefore “all art has been contemporary,” another quote by Nannucci.

Artists: Caroline Achaintre, Ricardo Alcaide, Per Bak Jensen, Joachim Bandau, Ella Bergmann-Michel, Olaf Breuning, Gianni Colombo, Anna Dickinson, Marianne Eigenheer, Barry Flanagan, Athene Galiciadis, Gerhard von Graevenitz, Terry Haggerty, Rebecca Horn, Imi Knoebel, Perrine Lievens, Bernhard Luginbühl, Mike Meiré, Anita Muçolli, Maurizio Nannucci, Aurélie Nemours, Sarah Oppenheimer, Nam June Paik, Anton Prinner, Boris Rebetez, Ursula Reuter Christiansen, Francisco Sierra, Florian Slotawa, Ted Stamm, Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, Superflex, Bernar Venet, Claudia Wieser, and John Wood & Paul Harrison

Public Opening: Friday, March 8, 2024, 6–8 pm, Basel
Header image: View from outside with Maurizio Nannucci’s, “New ideas for other times”, 2005, neon, ca. 300 x 250 cm.