Fruit Harvest

History of the work

On the Kunstmuseum's front facing Hodlerstrasse, a sgraffito by Cuno Amiet stretches across the wall. The city's data call it 'Obsternte' (Fruit Harvest); Wikipedia gives its subject as 'Apfelernte' (Apple Harvest). It was part of the decoration of the extension that opened in 1936.

The Kunstmuseum moved into Eugen Stettler's neo-Renaissance building in 1879. From 1932 to 1936 the architects Karl Indermühle and Otto Salvisberg built a plain side wing in the New Objectivity style beside it, which opened on 29 February 1936. According to Wikipedia, Swiss art of a down-to-earth realism in the spirit of 'spiritual national defence' dominated at the time, and the facade decoration followed suit. Bernese artists representing modern tendencies protested: one night they threw tar at the sgraffito.

In 1983 the Bernese architects Atelier 5 replaced the Salvisberg building with an extension containing galleries, a cinema, a library and a café. Everything was demolished except the street front: the closed wall was kept and given a simple steel structure clad in sheet metal.

Amiet was born in Solothurn on 28 March 1868. He studied in Munich and, from 1888, at the Académie Julian in Paris, and later joined the Dresden artists' group 'Brücke'. In 1898 he moved with his wife to Oschwand, where he lived for the rest of his life. In 1931 about fifty of his paintings, mostly early works, were destroyed in the fire of the Glaspalast in Munich. He died at Oschwand on 6 July 1961. Standing in front of the museum, you see in the wall facing the street what remains of the 1936 building.

Researched and summarised by Bärn Kit. Sources: Kultur Stadt Bern, Kunst im öffentlichen Raum (offene Daten) · Wikipedia (de): Kunstmuseum Bern · Wikipedia (de): Cuno Amiet · Wikimedia Commons: Bern Kunstmuseum 3