Wolfgang Laib – Touching the Essential

As part of the ReCollect! series, the works of Wolfgang Laib are brought into dialogue with masterpieces from the Kunsthaus Zürich Collection. Since the late 1970s, Laib has created radically reduced, quietly powerful works using pollen, beeswax, milk, rice and stone.

Touching the Essential

Tickets

CHF 24.–/17.–* including access to the entire collection.
*Reduced admission

Annual Pass/Membership

Free entry with a membership, plus an invitation to the vernissage in the presence of the artist and many other benefits!

Laib’s works enter into a transhistorical dialogue with around 30 pieces from the Collection – from the Middle Ages to the 20th century. Among the artists featured are the circle of Fra Angelico, Matteo di Giovanni, Philippe de Champaigne, Claude Monet, Ferdinand Hodler, Alberto Giacometti, Constantin Brancusi, Giorgio de Chirico, Wassily Kandinsky, Verena Loewensberg, Piet Mondrian, Barnett Newman, Mark Rothko, Robert Ryman, Sophie Taeuber-Arp and Lee Ufan.

Some 50 key works convey Laib’s artistic vocabulary: a large-scale pollen work, a Brahmanda (egg-shaped stone sculpture), Milkstone, Ziggurat, a walk-through wax room, rice houses, a lacquer stair, and other sculptures, drawings and photographs. Complementing these are formative works of Asian art, particularly from India – including a major loan from the Museum Rietberg: an important Jain marble statue of Jina Rishabha.

Installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025 – Back: Wolfgang Laib, Zikkurat, 2000 © Wolfgang Laib. Front: Alberto Giacometti, Le Chariot, 1950, Kunsthaus Zürich, Alberto Giacometti Foundation, 1965 © Succession of Alberto Giacometti / ProLitteris, Zurich, 2025. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

Wolfgang Laib, Hazelnut Pollen, 2020–2023, Installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025 © Wolfgang Laib. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

Laib__Reishaus_1993_94 — Wolfgang Laib, Rice House, 1993/1994, Collection Cristina and Thomas Bechtler © Wolfgang Laib

Installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025 – Back: Claude Monet, Le Bassin aux nymphéas, le soir, 1914/1922, Kunsthaus Zürich, Gift of Emil G. Bührle, 1952. Front: Wolfgang Laib, Boats, 2012 © Wolfgang Laib. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

Laib__Rothko_Mark__1971_0005__R_2489 — Mark Rothko, Untitled (White, Black, Grays on Maroon), 1963, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1971, © 1998 Kate Rothko Prizel & Christopher Rothko / 2025, ProLitteris, Zurich

Installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025 – Front: Wolfgang Laib, Brahmanda, 2016–2020. Right on the wall: Wassily Kandinsky, Black Spot, 1921, Kunsthaus Zürich, 1947. Right on plinth: Wolfgang Laib, Tower of Silence, 2025. Back: Wolfgang Laib, Ziggurat, 2000. Works by Wolfgang Laib: © Wolfgang Laib. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

Installation view Kunsthaus Zürich, 2025 – Work: Wolfgang Laib, For Another Body, 1988/2025 © Wolfgang Laib. Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

Laib__Monet_Claude — Claude Monet, Meule au soleil, 1891, Kunsthaus Zürich, Purchased with funds from the Otto Meister Bequest, 1969

Laib_Wolfgang_49_Grab — Wolfgang Laib, Tomb near Badami, South India, 2001, Private collection, © Wolfgang Laib

VGL_Beltz_7 — Artist unknown, Jina Rishabha India, Rajasthan, Chandravati, 11th/12th century, Rietberg Museum, Eduard von der Heydt Collection Photo: Rainer Wolfsberger, Rietberg Museum

The exhibition on the 1st floor of the Müller building is curated by Laib himself in collaboration with Senior Curator Collection Philippe Büttner. Their long-standing partnership, first evident in a major retrospective at the Fondation Beyeler in 2005, continues here in a dialogue spanning seven centuries of art.

« Art can have connections over many centuries or thousands of years. » — Wolfgang Laib

Visitors will not only experience Laib’s sculptural gestures and materials in new depth, but also discover unexpected facets of the Collection.

This exhibition is supported by The Leir Foundation and Thomas W. and Cristina Bechtler.

Programme

Sat 8.11. 15:00-16:00

Guided Tour

Sammlungsführung

Wolfgang Laib

Free Places: 21

Guided Tour

Sat 27.12. 15:00-16:00

Guided Tour

Sammlungsführung

Exhibition location

On the first floor of the Moser Building – see the interactive visitor guide!

To the Visitorguide

Group Visits

For organisational reasons, we kindly ask groups, school classes, and external guided tours to register in advance.

info@kunsthaus.ch
+41 44 253 84 84

Laib_Katalog_Web_3 — Photo: Franca Candrian, Kunsthaus Zürich

Exhibition publication

Accompanying the exhibition, a richly illustrated publication has been released. Contributions by Philippe Büttner, Johannes Beltz, Mami Kataoka, Harald Szeemann, and a conversation with Wolfgang Laib himself shed light on the central themes of his work, as well as the influences and background of his artistic journey.