Wilhelm Lehmbruck Exhibition Zurich – Kunsthaus Zürich with Yves Netzhammer

Focusing on the final years of Wilhelm Lehmbruck’s (1881–1919) life and work in Berlin and Zurich, the Kunsthaus Zürich presents a major monographic exhibition. In a space-filling mise en scène conceived by Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer (b. 1970), sculptures, drawings, etchings and paintings enter into dialogue with a contemporary staging that powerfully addresses vulnerability and the human condition.

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Art and Vulnerability

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At the heart of the exhibition are Lehmbruck’s late creative phases in Berlin (1914–1916) and Zurich (1916–1919). Working in a repurposed garage, he created masterpieces such as Seated Youth (1916/17), Woman Praying (1918) and Head of a Thinker (1918). These figures translate grief, longing and transcendence into moving forms.

During the First World War, Lehmbruck connected with intellectuals such as Fritz von Unruh, Ludwig Rubiner and Leonhard Frank. Inspired by encounters in Paris with Rodin, Brancusi and Modigliani, he dedicated himself uncompromisingly to the human body. Female Torso (1918) marks both an artistic turning point and a shattering legacy – in 1919, Lehmbruck took his own life in Berlin.

lehmbruck-04 — The Weight of Being! Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The Final Years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer, installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

038_Lehmbruck — The Weight of Being! Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The Final Years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer, installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

netzhammer-04 — The Weight of Being! Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The Final Years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer, installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

054_Lehmbruck — Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Female Semi-Nude (Medea), 1915, Lehmbruck Estate, Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe, photo: Andreas Drollinger

045e_Lehmbruck_Sitzender Juengling_Foto Kirtz — The Weight of Being! Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The Final Years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer, installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

netzhammer-06 — The Weight of Being! Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The Final Years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer, installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

060_Lehmbruck — Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Seated Female Nude, Bent Forward (Mother and Child), 1917/18 Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg, photo: Bernd Kirtz

066a_Lehmbruck — The Weight of Being! Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The Final Years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer, installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

netzhammer-03 — The Weight of Being! Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The Final Years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer, installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

His art resonates with universal human experiences and endures as a silent memorial to vulnerability and humanity.
Yves Netzhammer sets Lehmbrucks oeuvre in a contemporary field of tension: through digital drawings, animations and large-scale installations he opens up new perspectives – for the first time, a contemporary artist stages Lehmbruck’s works.

« Sculpture is the essence of things, the essence of nature, that which is eternally human. » — Wilhelm Lehmbruck, 1918

« One can never do full justice to the image of the human being. But one can try to reflect on our differences and carry them forward artistically. » — Yves Netzhammer, 2025

The exhibition is a cooperation with the Kunstmuseum Moritzburg Halle (Saale), in collaboration with the Lehmbruck Museum, Duisburg. Curated by Dr Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath and Dr Sandra Gianfreda.

Supported by the HMSL Foundation and a foundation that wishes to remain anonymous.

#kunsthauszurich

Programme

Thu 8.1. 18:30-19:30

Guided Tour

Exhibition publication

A bilingual catalogue (German/English) is published to accompany the exhibition, with texts by Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath, Söke Dinkla, Sandra Gianfreda, Sarah Louisa Henn, Katharina Rüppell and Josefine Telemann.

CHF 44.–

A dedicated volume on Yves Netzhammer presents new works, installation views, an interview, and poems by Simone Lappert and Wilhelm Lehmbruck.

Both catalogues are available in our museum shops.

Price: CHF 29.–
Both volumes: CHF 64.–

Edition_Quer — Yves Netzhammer, No Title, 2025 © Yves Netzhammer

Exclusive and Limited Edition

Created in collaboration with Yves Netzhammer, this limited-edition sculpture with certificate is a contemporary reference to the classical bust.
Hands and arms touch an imaginary face – a gesture of contemplation and formal clarity.

Limited edition of 30 pieces
Signed certificate of authenticity by Kunsthaus Zürich and Yves Netzhammer
Material: 3D print, white, Tough Resin
Dimensions: 21.6 × 13.6 × 19 cm, approx. 750 g

CHF 1550.–

10% member discount / 20% MemberPlus
Available at the Design Shop in the Chipperfield building.

Dada-Netzhammer-teaser-home — Exhibition view Dada room

Dada Room

Parallel to the exhibition, Cathérine Hug, curator at the Kunsthaus Zürich, has dedicated the Dada Room on the first floor of the Chipperfield Building to the theme “Body and Pain”. The presentation also features Yves Netzhammer’s video work Adressen unmöglicher Orte (2009).

To the Dada Room