Together, Fotomuseum and Fotostiftung will showcase the oeuvre of Swiss artist Balthasar Burkhard (1944–2010) in a major retrospective. Burkhard’s work spans half a century: from his early days as a trainee photographer with Kurt Blum to his seminal role in chronicling the art of his time, and his eventual breakthrough as an internationally acclaimed photographic artist in his own right. Burkhard was one of the first to bring photography into the realms of contemporary art in the form of the monumental “tableau”. He interpreted the body as sculpture and used the canvas to liberate photography from its function as a purely reproductive medium. More than 150 works and groups of works chart not only the progress of his own photographic career, but also the emergence of photography as an art form in the second half of the twentieth century. The exhibition is divided into two parts, shown in parallel at Fotomuseum and Fotostiftung.

Realised in collaboration with the Museum Folkwang, Essen, and the Museo d’arte della Svizzera italiana, Lugano.