This is the second of four videos in which curator Eva Reifert introduces us to the oeuvre of Arnold Böcklin. During the Corona-Crisis, Swiss artist Arnold Böcklin’s symbolist painting “The Plague” (1898) became prominently displayed in the media as illustration of the pandemic. This work is currently on display at Kunstmuseum Basel, in an exhibition that’s titled “Encountering Böcklin” (Böcklin Begegnet).

The show is an excellent introduction to Arnold Böcklin’s oeuvre and his time. Configured in twelve groupings, works by Arnold Böcklin (1827-1901) are juxtaposed with those of his predecessors, contemporaries and unexpectedly like-minded artists, allowing key biographical, stylistic and thematic aspects of his oeuvre to emerge.

In this video, Eva Reifert talks about three groupings:

THE BÖCKLIN-BURCKHARDT CONNECTION with works by Artur Joseph Wilhelm Volkmann, (Portrait of Professor Jacob Burckhardt, 1899); and Arnold Böcklin, (Study of the Sixth Mask at the Garden Front of the Kunsthalle Basel, 1871).

LITERATURE IN PAINT with works by Joseph Anton Koch, (Macbeth and the Witches, 1829/30); and Arnold Böcklin, (Petrarch at the Spring of Vaucluse, 1867).

PICTURING CHILDREN with works by Anselm Feuerbach, (At the Beach, Fisher Maiden in Antium, 1870); and Hans von Marées, (The Child, 1870 Arnold Böcklin, Vita omnium breve (Life a Short Dream), 1888).

Encountering Böcklin (Böcklin Begegnet) at Kunstmuseum Basel. Basel (Switzerland), June 15, 2020.

> Right-click (Mac: ctrl-click) this link to download Quicktime video file.