A Beautiful Back Can Also Delight

Description

Since the opening of the Kunsthaus in 2009, painting has been at the center of our program.
The current exhibition is dedicated to a central theme of representational art since antiquity, the human image, which has changed repeatedly over time. Is the depiction of humans through imagery progressing or regressing?
This question is posed by the Danish art historian Julius Lange in the final section of his nearly 600-page work.
The Human Form in the History of Art (Heitz Verlag, Strasbourg, 1903).
And he also provides an answer from the perspective of his time:
If we are to answer the question of what is more valuable, the purely objective perception of the human form as it appears to the eye, or the expression of subjective life over time, the answer will probably favor the latter. We cannot deny the art of our own era; if it did not exactly correspond to what interests us, it would take on different forms than it has... How artists of our time see and depict humans is shown by the exhibition
A Beautiful Back Can Also Delight.
The works displayed, almost exclusively paintings – including numerous so-called back figures, which inspired the title of the exhibition – question the meaning and meaninglessness of earthly life or simply show its various facets, from the highest joys to the deepest disappointments, from birth to death.
Visitors will walk through spaces with highly different moods and encounter creatures from reality and fantasy, dreams and nightmares... Guided tour through the exhibition
October 11, October 25, and November 8, 2026, at 11 a.m.

Highlights

• Exhibition on the depiction of humans in art
• Focus on back figures in painting
• Kunsthaus Interlaken since 2009

General Information

The exhibition "A Beautiful Back Can Also Delight" at Kunsthaus Interlaken explores the development of the human image in painting. It shows how artists interpret and question the human form and offers insight into the various facets of earthly life.

Location

Jungfraustrasse 55, 3800 Interlaken, Switzerland

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