Description of the attraction
The City Museum of Modern Art is housed in a beautiful palace built at the end of the 16th century on Borgo Street. In addition to the museum, the building also houses the offices of two foundations - Marianna Verevkina and Richard Seewald.
The collection of the museum dates back to 1922, when the artists who lived in Ascona at that time donated one of their works to the city. Russian artist Marianna Verevkina donated to the new museum such masterpieces as "The Head of a Girl" by Alexei Yavlensky, "Drawing" by Cuno Amier, "Red House" by Paul Klee, and five of her works.
The collection of the museum was replenished in the following years. In the museum you can see a selection of paintings by painters from the association "Big Dipper", formed in 1924 by the same Verevkina. There are also works by German artists Walter Helbig and Otto Niemeyer, Swiss Albert Kohler and Ernst Frick, Dutchman Otto van Ries and other masters. The watercolors of Hermann Hesse, the works of Marcel Janko, and the paintings of Arthur Segal evoke admiration.
Among the latest acquisitions of the Museum of Modern Art are several paintings by Jules Bissière, Ben Nicholson, Italo Valenti, gouache works by Marini Marini, sculptures by Hermann Haller and some other masters. The museum also exhibits the collection of the Marianna Verevkina Foundation, which is about 70 paintings and 160 sketches made by this talented artist. Visitors to the museum are particularly fond of the striking work that depicts views of Ascona. Part of the exhibition is the property of the Richard Seewald Foundation. Here are the works of Seewald himself, paintings of rare beauty by Maurice Utrillo, Paul Klee, Franz Marc and watercolor painting by Alfred Kubin.
Until June 2018, the Museum of Contemporary Art in Ascona is closed for renovations. Some of the works from the museum are still on display in other exhibition halls in the city, for example, in the House of Serodine and in the castle of San Materno.
