Bendicht Fivian

May 13 – July 12 2020

It’s not a coincidence that the Kunsthalle opens its 40th anniversary program with Bendicht Fivian. He was Winterthur’s most important artist since moving to the city in 1975 up to his death in November 2019. Fivian’s work of the 1960s are considered rare Swiss contributions to pop art and are part of the canon of Swiss art history. After suffering from a creative crisis due to the ‘68 movement, he created a comprehensive oeuvre where his paintings evolved along object and figure into a confident spectacle.
Already in 1982 Fivian had a solo exhibition at the Kunsthalle, this is now his second exhibition. The selection of works from the 1980s shown in the main hall are conceived in honor of his influential position for the city and art institution. They also depict a visual proof how stilistic criterias of the 80s and a supertemporal pictorial validity can assert themselves at the same time. The exhibition is stocked from Fivian’s extensive estate and includes three works which were already shown in the spaces of the Kunsthalle in 1982.