The Kunstmuseum Basel dedicates a major exhibition to Medardo Rosso. He will be in dialogue with more than 60 artists

From March 29 to August 10, 2025, the Kunstmuseum Basel will host the exhibition Medardo Rosso. The Invention of Modern Sculpture, curated by Heike Eipeldauer and Elena Filipovic. Twenty years after the first and last retrospective in Switzerland devoted to Medardo Rosso (Turin, 1858 - Milan, 1928), this retrospective is an opportunity to rediscover the revolutionary work of the sculptor and photographer who challenged the artistic conventions of his time and profoundly influenced modern sculpture.

Through some 50 sculptures in bronze, plaster and wax, including iconic pieces, and more than 250 photographs and drawings, the exhibition aims to raise awareness of his pioneering work in Milan and Paris at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, but also to reflect on the contemporary scope of his art, as well as offer the basis for rediscovering the history of modern sculpture. The result of a collaboration with mumok in Vienna, the exhibition aims to highlight the artist’s experimental and transmedia approach to form, material and technique. His work will be presented in dialogue with works (more than 60 ancient and contemporary photographs, paintings, sculptures, and videos) by more than 60 artists from the past 100 years, including Lynda Benglis, Constantin Brâncuși, Edgar Degas, David Hammons, Eva Hesse, Meret Oppenheim, Auguste Rodin, and Alina Szapocznikow.

Compared to the previous stop at mumok in Vienna, the Basel edition will include also works by Umberto Boccioni, Miriam Cahn, Mary Cassatt, Marcel Duchamp, Peter Fischli/David Weiss, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Sidsel Meineche Hansen, Henry Moore, Meret Oppenheim, Simone Fattal, Giuseppe Penone, Odilon Redon, Pamela Rosenkranz, Kaari Upson, Andra Ursuţa, and Danh Vō. The exhibition route begins in the inner courtyard of theHauptbau, where Rodin’s The Bourgeois of Calais is confronted with a work by Pamela Rosenkranz, and then traverses the underground link to a large installation by Kaari Upson in the Neubau.

The exhibition continues on the second floor with confrontations with works by other artists. These dialogues address key themes in Rosso’s research, including “Repetition and Variation,” “Process and Performance,” “Anti-monumentality,” and “Appearing and Disappearing.”

The works on display come from the collections of the Kunstmuseum in Basel and Mumok in Vienna, as well as from international collections such as the Albertina in Vienna, Galleria d’Arte Moderna in Milan, Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo, Städel Museum in Frankfurt, Kunsthaus in Zurich, and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst in Ghent.

Accompanying the exhibition is a volume dedicated to Medardo Rosso that is intended to be the most comprehensive publication on the artist.

For all info: www.kunstmuseumbasel.ch

The Kunstmuseum Basel dedicates a major exhibition to Medardo Rosso. He will be in dialogue with more than 60 artists

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