Art'n'Rail Zentrum Paul Klee in Bern

With Kosmos Klee. The Collection, a platform has been created in 2023 where visitors can find out about the life and work of Paul Klee.

A richly illustrated biography, a film and materials from Klee's studio provide an insight into his life. Discoveries from the archive, such as Klee's record player and record collection, are also on display. His favorite music can be listened to in the reading lounge, which also invites visitors to linger and discuss. The works are exchanged three times a year. A repeat visit is worthwhile!

In addition to an overview show with around 80 works, a separate room focuses on central aspects of Klee's oeuvre or other artists.

Fokus. Hans Fischli (1909–1989), 24.1.2026–3.5.2026
Fokus. Klees Rückseiten, 9.5.2026–23.8.2026
Fokus. Florence Henri (1893–1982), 29.8.2026–10.1.2027

07.11.2025–22.02.2026

Anni Albers (1889–1994) is one of the most influential figures in 20th-century art and design. Her creative journey began in the 1920s at the Bauhaus, where she studied under Paul Klee. After emigrating to the USA in 1933, she established herself as a weaver, textile designer, and visual artist.

The exhibition highlights Albers’ connection between textiles and architecture, weaving and building. Her innovative approach and deep understanding of materials make her work still highly relevant today, particularly in the context of modern challenges in energy and resource management. As a designer, theorist, and artist, Albers made a lasting impact on the field of textiles.

07.11.2025–22.02.2026

Kurt Schwitters (1887–1948) is regarded as one of the most influential figures of the international avant-garde between the two world wars. As an unconventional artist, he moved fluidly between disciplines and created a unique synthesis of art, design, and literature.

At the core of his work lay the principle of collage: an approach through which he sought to forge new layers of meaning from the contradictory impressions of modern everyday life. In doing so, he countered the chaos of his time with a poetic and newly ordered world.

The exhibition showcases the breadth of his oeuvre – from Dadaist collages and the reconstructed walk-in “Merzbau” from Hanover to naturalistic portraits and landscape paintings. It also highlights his creative resilience in exile and his position as an independent artist and writer within modernism. With “Schwitters. On the Fringes of the Avant-Garde”, the Zentrum Paul Klee presents the first comprehensive exhibition devoted to Kurt Schwitters in Switzerland in twenty years.

18.7.2026–20.9.2026

The German artist Anne Loch (1946–2014), who lived in Switzerland periodically from the 1980s onward, questioned traditional forms of representation and explored the possibilities and limits of painting in her work. In her large-scale depictions of mountains, flowers, animals, and insects, a subtle tension unfolds that carries the motifs far beyond the purely idyllic.

What at first appears familiar or even somewhat clichéd resists clear interpretation upon closer inspection. The boundaries between figuration and abstraction, between painting and drawing, and between reality and dream become permeable. Line, colour, and surface move into the foreground – as does the search for the right balance between these fundamental elements of painting. The exhibition at the Zentrum Paul Klee traces Anne Loch’s engagement with the medium of painting and the gradual dissolution of her motifs through around 70 works.

17.10.2026–7.2.2027

Brazilian artist Roberto Burle Marx (1909–1994) had a decisive influence on 20th-century landscape architecture by transferring creative approaches from painting and music to natural environments, thereby developing completely new forms of expression.

His designs are often reminiscent of abstract paintings, while at the same time combining landscape spaces with sculptures and colorful or sculpturally designed wall elements. In his paintings, plants appear in abstract form, as does the shimmering light in the treetops. As a versatile designer – painter, graphic artist, sculptor, jewelry, stage, and costume designer – as well as an environmental activist and collector, he was actively involved in the Brazilian avant-garde movement, promoting a cultural reevaluation of what was considered typically “Brazilian.” In his parks, he deliberately focused on native plant species, even though some of them were underappreciated, and promoted their research and the protection of Brazilian flora.