Verso: Tales from the Other Side / Kunstmuseum Basel | Neubau

The “Verso” exhibition at the Kunstmuseum Basel shows paintings from the 14th to 18th centuries, all from the museum's collection. What makes it special is that it also takes a look at the reverse side of these paintings. The show offers a chance to see the concealed sides usually visible only to curators and conservators.

“The exhibition shines a light on the lives of artworks before they came to hang on museum walls, showing traces of their circulation in other contexts and their different functions. Find winged altarpieces, painted on both sides so that they could be displayed differently throughout the liturgical year, and coats of arms that were discretely attached to the backside of objects by their owners, or painted panels that had been simply turned over and reused. There’s even a double-sided advertising panel made by Ambrosius and Hans Holbein the Younger as well as paintings specially designed to be picked up and turned over. Verso thus offers new perspectives on artworks, not just by famous names such as Hans Baldung (also known as Grien), Lucas Cranach, and Konrad Witz, but also others that deserve a second look.”
(excerpt from the exhibition text).

Artists: Hans Baldung, known as Grien, Hans Bock, Jacob Cornelisz van Oostsanen, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Hans Fries, Hans Holbein the Younger, Ambrosius Holbein, Wolfgang Katzheimer the Elder, Niklaus Manuel Deutsch, Hans Pleydenwurff, Jan Polack, Pieter Snyers, Tobias Stimmer, Konrad Witz, and more.

The exhibition runs until January 4, 2026.

Verso: Tales from the Other Side / Kunstmuseum Basel | Neubau in Basel (Switzerland). Press preview, January 30, 2025.