Ferdinand Hodler had to learn to be independent at an early age: At the age of twelve, he fed the family after the death of his father. He later began an apprenticeship as a view painter and slowly achieved artistic success. By his early 20s, Hodler had already developed his own style, parallelism, which analyzes natural contrasts. He became known as a painter with pictures such as The Bold Woman (1886), and his art divided the public. Exhibitions in Paris, London, Munich and Venice underscored his international success despite rejection from conservative circles. When Hodler received a gold medal at the Paris World Exhibition in 1900, he was now regarded as one of the leading painters in Europe and was seen as an example of typical Swiss artistic expression. Even after his death in 1918, Hodler's admiration continued for several decades until after the Second World War. His innovative work was rediscovered in the 1980s. The latest exhibition Apropos Hodler – Current perspectives on an icon presents the Swiss painter in all his diversity. The presentation runs from March 8 to June 30 at the Kunsthaus Zurich.
With around 60 paintings, the Kunsthaus aims to present Hodler in all his facets, not just the best-known ones. The exhibits are divided into four thematic areas: landscapes, corporealities, affiliations and mysteriousness/transcendence. Hodler's works will be juxtaposed with 30 contemporary artists in order to shed light on issues relating to climate change, representations of the human being and the search for identity and to examine Hodler's relevance today. The selected artists include Asim Abdulaziz, Laura Aguilar, Caroline Bachmann, David Hockney, Sasha Huber, Roland Iselin, Frantiček Klossner, Urs Lüthi, André M'Bon, Uriel Orlow, Nicolas Party, Ugo Rondinone, Milva Stutz and Latefa Wiersch.
