Julius Baer Art Collection

Finger on the pulse
Times change! Being human means being subjected to constant transformation. It’s not just social, political, economic and climate-related changes that have a collective or individual impact on society, but also scientific and technological advancements as well as globalisation, making us question our behaviour, our ways of living, our values, our traditions and even our identities.

Art plays an obvious role in these processes because it facilitates our understanding of the world around us, helping us to reflect upon social continuities and changes, express ideas and emotions, stoke debates and evoke social transformation. Art is an inspirational reflection of human existence and of the zeitgeist.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the French artist Édouard Manet and writer Charles Baudelaire exhorted artists to be ‘modern’ and find answers to the events of their time. The present-day artists represented in the Julius Baer Art Collection are continuing in the same vein with their focus on contemporary issues:

The work of young painter Elise Corpataux (b. 1994) examines the topic of social media. In ‘Come back and stay’ (2023) we see a group of people admiring a sunset. The group collectively experiences this intimate and emotionally touching moment, but at that same moment each individual remains alone in his or her thoughts and emotions. Much like someone posting on social media, the artist works within the confines of her own four walls to portray personal themes that are later presented to a wider audience. In doing so, Corpataux is operating at the intersection of intimacy and public life.

In the series ‘garden and jalousie’, Dorian Sari (b. 1989) plays upon the dialectics of power. The jacket references the idea of ‘the clothes make the man’; in presenting a portrait of themselves partially hidden by this jacket while secretly observing others, they are calling attention to themes such as showing and hiding as well as seeing and being seen.

In her work ‘Untitled’ (2017), Geneva-based artist Sonia Kacem (b. 1985) demonstrates her awareness of materiality: What looks like a rolled-up carpet destined for the rubbish bin is actually a fragile ceramic creation. By removing materials of their function, Kacem questions their purpose as well as society’s approach to consumer goods and the environment.

The universe of Yves Netzhammer (b. 1970) is marked by an unmistakable and poetic formal vocabulary. Themes such as the vulnerability of human existence and the relationship between an individual and their surroundings are the focus of his work. During the first months of the Covid-19 outbreak, the artist reflected upon this extraordinary period by creating ‘Coronavirus-Zeichnungen, März bis Juni 2020’ (Coronavirus Drawings, March to June 2020), a kind of diary comprising computer-generated drawings.

The luminous neon work ‘Are you online now?’ (2016) is from the ‘Solve This Captcha’ series by !Mediengruppe Bitnik (Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo). The sentence is one of the computer-generated chat-up lines for the Canadian online dating platform Ashley Madison, which was hacked in 2015. Optically resembling a captcha – an image that serves as a gatekeeper – the line can be interpreted by humans but not by bots. The artist duo uses the data made public in the Ashley Madison leak as a case study examining the current relationship between humans and machines, as well as the notion of intimacy on the internet and the use of virtual platforms to disrupt physical spaces.

These artists all employ a wide variety of ways to examine established canons, react to global interdependences and present sources of friction that can help us deal with reality, and in doing so enable us to look beyond everyday life.

more less

Finger on the pulse
Times change! Being human means being subjected to constant transformation. It’s not just social, political, economic and climate-related changes that have a collective or individual impact on society, but also scientific and technological advancements as well as globalisation, making us question our behaviour, our ways of living, our values, our traditions and even our identities.

Art plays an obvious role in these processes because it facilitates our understanding of the world around us, helping us to reflect upon social continuities and changes, express ideas and emotions, stoke debates and evoke social transformation. Art is an inspirational reflection of human existence and of the zeitgeist.

Towards the end of the nineteenth century, the French artist Édouard Manet and writer Charles Baudelaire exhorted artists to be ‘modern’ and find answers to the events of their time. The present-day artists represented in the Julius Baer Art Collection are continuing in the same vein with their focus on contemporary issues:

The work of young painter Elise Corpataux (b. 1994) examines the topic of social media. In ‘Come back and stay’ (2023) we see a group of people admiring a sunset. The group collectively experiences this intimate and emotionally touching moment, but at that same moment each individual remains alone in his or her thoughts and emotions. Much like someone posting on social media, the artist works within the confines of her own four walls to portray personal themes that are later presented to a wider audience. In doing so, Corpataux is operating at the intersection of intimacy and public life.

In the series ‘garden and jalousie’, Dorian Sari (b. 1989) plays upon the dialectics of power. The jacket references the idea of ‘the clothes make the man’; in presenting a portrait of themselves partially hidden by this jacket while secretly observing others, they are calling attention to themes such as showing and hiding as well as seeing and being seen.

In her work ‘Untitled’ (2017), Geneva-based artist Sonia Kacem (b. 1985) demonstrates her awareness of materiality: What looks like a rolled-up carpet destined for the rubbish bin is actually a fragile ceramic creation. By removing materials of their function, Kacem questions their purpose as well as society’s approach to consumer goods and the environment.

The universe of Yves Netzhammer (b. 1970) is marked by an unmistakable and poetic formal vocabulary. Themes such as the vulnerability of human existence and the relationship between an individual and their surroundings are the focus of his work. During the first months of the Covid-19 outbreak, the artist reflected upon this extraordinary period by creating ‘Coronavirus-Zeichnungen, März bis Juni 2020’ (Coronavirus Drawings, March to June 2020), a kind of diary comprising computer-generated drawings.

The luminous neon work ‘Are you online now?’ (2016) is from the ‘Solve This Captcha’ series by !Mediengruppe Bitnik (Carmen Weisskopf and Domagoj Smoljo). The sentence is one of the computer-generated chat-up lines for the Canadian online dating platform Ashley Madison, which was hacked in 2015. Optically resembling a captcha – an image that serves as a gatekeeper – the line can be interpreted by humans but not by bots. The artist duo uses the data made public in the Ashley Madison leak as a case study examining the current relationship between humans and machines, as well as the notion of intimacy on the internet and the use of virtual platforms to disrupt physical spaces.

These artists all employ a wide variety of ways to examine established canons, react to global interdependences and present sources of friction that can help us deal with reality, and in doing so enable us to look beyond everyday life.

more less