Zurich Art Gallery

(Local Name: Kunsthaus) A short distance south of Zurich's Conservatoire is the Heimplatz, on the southwest side of which we find the Art Gallery (Kunsthaus), with an important collection of pictures and sculpture from antiquity to the present day. To the right of the entrance can be seen a large piece of bronze sculpture, the "Porte de l'Enfer" ("Gate of Hell") by Auguste Rodin (1880-1917). The institution, run by the Zurich Society of Arts with the aid of a public subsidy, goes back to a society of artists, founded in 1787; the "Künstlergüetli" gallery was established in 1847. The buildings were extensively enlarged in 1925, in 1954-1958 and in 1976. In addition to Swiss painters of the 19th and 20th C., such as J. H. Füssli, F. Buchser, R. Koller, A Böcklin, F. Hodler, C. Amiet, A. and J. Giacometti, M. Gubler and M. Bill, there are important works by E. Munch, O. Kokoschka and M. Beckmann. Also to be seen are paintings by French Impressionists, including Manet, Monet and Cézanne, international avant-garde artists of the 20th C. such as Klee, Mondrian, Picasso, Chirico, Matisse, Chagall, and many exhibits in a Dadaist collection. The department of modern sculpture since the time of Rodin has works by Moore, Picasso, Barloch, Maillot, Rodin, Segal, Caler and Tinguely. The graphic collection has about 80,000 drawings and prints by J. H. Füssli, S. Gessner, F. Hodler, F. Hegi, L. Corinth, A. Dürer, Raffael and Rembrandt, P. Klee, F. Glarner, C. Amiet, M. Klinger and the Zurich "concrete" movement.