VILHELM HAMMERSHØI: SILENCE

Hauser & Wirth announces Silence by Vilhelm Hammershøi in their new gallery in Basel at Luftgässlein 4. Curated by Felix Krämer, the exhibition show 18 works from private collections, some of which have rarely been exhibited before.

June 1 - July 13, 2024

Born in 1864, Hammershøi’s timeless paintings defy categorization, visually bridging the art of the Old Masters with that of the modern era. His remarkably modernist sensibility continues to capture the imaginations of contemporary audiences from beyond his native Denmark, with major international retrospectives and exhibitions over the last 20 years, including shows at The Royal Academy of Arts, London, UK (2008), Kunsthalle München, Munich, Germany (2012) and Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art, Japan (2020).

The son of a merchant, Hammershøi remained loyal to his hometown of Copenhagen. Through his travels to the European centers of Paris and London, he familiarized himself with the rapidly evolving international art of his time. However, his painting and drawing practice found inspiration in Dutch 17th-century genre painting, particularly the mysterious domestic interiors of Johannes Vermeer, and in the 19th-century Danish Golden Age, creating a highly individual artistic language.

The exhibition in Basel shows the breadth and depth of the artist’s practice through works dating from 1883 to 1914. Alongside the interior paintings for which Hammershøi is highly renowned, the exhibition features a number of the artist’s early farmstead paintings and cityscapes of Copenhagen and London, alongside a rare self-portrait of the artist titled ‘Double Portrait of the Artist and His Wife, Seen through a Mirror.