Vilhelm Hammershøi – The Eye That Listens

The first comprehensive museum exhibition in Switzerland dedicated to Vilhelm Hammershøi, featuring paintings that focus on perception, atmosphere, and subtle tensions between space and objects. About Silent rooms, muted light and minimal shifts within the familiar: Kunsthaus Zürich presents the first comprehensive museum exhibition in Switzerland dedicated to Vilhelm Hammershøi. His paintings focus on perception, atmosphere and the subtle tensions between space and objects. Empty rooms, closed doors, figures seen from behind: Hammershøi's paintings withdraw from narrative. Instead, they create concentration. Spaces appear both familiar and distant, light moves across walls, and objects assert a quiet presence. His works are defined by subtle gradations of muted colours. Minimal variations in recurring motifs sharpen the viewer's gaze and place perception itself at the centre. In dialogue with international movements of his time, Hammershøi developed a distinctive visual language. His affinity with painters such as James McNeill Whistler is evident in his reduced compositions and focus on formal aspects. Another dimension emerges through his relationship to music: instruments such as the cello or piano appear in his paintings and engage our sense of hearing. For his works are not truly "silent" – rather, they convey a tense calm, like the moment just before a concert begins. Alongside the iconic interiors, the exhibition also presents portraits, cityscapes and landscapes, placing his work within a broader art-historical context. An exhibition organised by the Kunsthaus Zürich in cooperation with the Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid. Supported by Albers & Co AG, Fondation Etrillard, International Music and Art Foundation, and three further foundations. How did Hammershøi create his enigmatic pictorial worlds? The Digital Archive of the Statens Museum for Kunst (SMK) offers fascinating insights into his works and invites you to discover the artist from a new perspective in the exhibition. A richly illustrated exhibition catalogue accompanies the exhibition, featuring contributions by Ramón Andrés, Jonas Beyer, Sandra Gianfreda, Florian Illies, Clara Marcellán and Peter Nørgaard Larsen. Available from the Art Shop. CHF 52.– Read more Toggle Painting