Things to do in Canton of Basel, Canton of Basel: The Best Art Museums

The Fondation Beyeler is a museum of modern and contemporary art open 365 days a year. It is considered one of the world's most beautiful museums. Its exhibitions of renowned artists of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries have brought the museum international recognition and established it as Switzerland's most popular art museum. The focus is the visitor's personal and sensory experiences in encountering art and nature. The art museum is located in an English park with a historical villa, old trees, and water lily ponds. The museum building, designed by award-winning Italian architect Renzo Piano, fits elegantly into the cultural landscape and offers beautiful views of the park.

The Kunstmuseum Basel is home to one of the largest and oldest public museum collections in Europe with works from the early fifteenth century to the present.

The Antikenmuseum Basel & Sammlung Ludwig is the only Swiss museum devoted exclusively to the ancient civilizations of the Mediterranean region. The permanent exhibition contains ancient art mainly from Egyptian, Greek, Italic, Etruscan and Roman cultures. Located in the heart of the city of Basel, the museum is a place where the ancient world is regularly cast in a new light.

Dynamic, experimental, rigorous, open-minded, and accessible, Kunsthalle Basel is a place for audacious art and exhibitions by emerging artists. Established in 1872 by the Basler Kunstverein (Basel Art Association), Kunsthalle Basel is world renowned for engaging with pioneering practices in contemporary art. With its majestic, skylighted spaces, the Kunsthalle is a truly exceptional place to see art. It organizes about eight exhibitions per year, featuring international and Swiss artists. The shows often take innovative forms and involve newly commissioned works. Throughout the year the Kunsthalle also presents dynamic public programming-artists' talks, lectures, film screenings, and readings-to contextualize the featured artists' practices. Kunsthalle Basel looks back with pride on a long history of exhibitions that nurtured the development of art and supported, early in their careers, emerging artists who would go on to become part of art history. In the early twentieth century it hosted major solo shows by Edvard Munch, Paul Gauguin, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Vincent van Gogh, and Piet Mondrian. In subsequent decades it featured Jackson Pollock, Alighiero Boetti, Joan Jonas, Jeff Koons, and Richard Serra. And more recently we have been proud to present solo shows by Moyra Davey, Mark Leckey, Superflex, Piotr Uklanski, Danh Vo, and Anicka Yi, to name only a few.

Positioned in a transitional zone between an urban and industrial environment, the Kunsthaus Baselland‘s exhibitions turn the experimental and innovative potential inherent in its location to its advantage. The institution organises group shows that consider current social discourses and topical questions in contemporary art, as well as solo shows devoted to up-coming and re-contextualised national and international artists. The industrial architecture of the building allows for interactions and dialogue between individual artistic positions, as well as for independently staged statements. Annually there are seven to nine curated art exhibitions whose focus is international or beyond the region, accompanied by talks with artists, discussions, and events on art theory. The actuality of topics and conceptual quality are the most important selection criteria. The programme is complemented by the REGIONALE – a cooperation with fourteen neighbouring institutions in the region.