Franz Gertsch Museum, Art museum in Burgdorf, Switzerland
The Franz Gertsch Museum is an art museum in Burgdorf whose roughly 1,000 square metres of exhibition space are divided into five rooms. Two exposed-concrete cubes stand at right angles to each other and enclose a museum garden. The architects Hansueli Jörg and Martin Sturm designed the rooms with Franz Gertsch, keeping materials to a minimum so the walls serve the works.
In 1998 the Burgdorf industrialist Willy Michel and Franz Gertsch decided to build a museum together. Michel financed the whole project and set up the willy michel foundation, which forms the collection's base. The building by Hansueli Jörg and Martin Sturm opened in autumn 2002. The foundation holds Gertsch's complete output since 1987, including the paintings Silvia I and Gräser I–IV.
The museum is named after Franz Gertsch, the Swiss painter born in 1930, and grew out of a 1998 decision by Burgdorf industrialist Willy Michel to fund a home for his work. A 50-seat artcafé and a video lounge showing a documentary on Gertsch let visitors spend time between the galleries.
The museum offers guided tours and art workshops for smaller groups of visitors. School classes receive special rates for art-focused discussions before the works on display.
The building resulted from close collaboration between two renowned Swiss architects and the artist himself. The designed surroundings, with their white walls and central garden, were specifically created to house his works.
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