Kunsthaus Zürich presents ‘The Weight of Being. Wilhelm Lehmbruck – The final years. Dialogue with Yves Netzhammer’.

From 24 October 2025 to 18 January 2026, the Kunsthaus Zürich is devoting a major monographic exhibition to the German sculptor Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881–1919), focusing on the final years of his life and work in Berlin and Zurich. In a collaboration with the contemporary Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer (b. 1970) this powerful presentation examines the vulnerability of human beings – then as now. It includes not only sculptures but also drawings, etchings and paintings by Lehmbruck in a space-filling mise en scène conceived by Netzhammer. Transhistorical dialogues of this kind have become a feature of the Kunsthaus Zürich, with past exhibitions including ‘Matthew Wong – Vincent van Gogh’, ‘Käthe Kollwitz – Mona Hatoum’, and ‘Giacometti – Dalí ’.

DIALOGUE ACROSS ERAS: YVES NETZHAMMER

The Zurich exhibition bears a distinct curatorial signature. With a strong focus on the years 1916 to 1919 and the local context, the curators Angelika Affentranger-Kirchrath und Sandra Gianfreda have placed Lehmbruck in a fascinating juxtaposition with the internationally renowned Swiss artist Yves Netzhammer. Netzhammer investigates the ways in which the human being can be depicted today, in a world of increasing complexity. Starting out from computer-generated drawings, he develops subtle arrangements and large, installational spatial images produced in part with the use of novel technical design techniques such as 3D printing and animation programs. He reflects on the issues of his time and translates them in intelligent, often ironically witty yet at the same time touching ways into delicate, inchoate and constantly changing figures. Netzhammer, who has already exhibited at the Lehmbruck Museum on a number of occasions, is not only a partner in dialogue but also the designer of the presentation in Zurich. It is the first time that a contemporary artist stages Lehmbruck’s works.

DADA ROOM

Parallel to the exhibition, Cathérine Hug, curator at the Kunsthaus Zürich, has curated the Dada Room on the first floor of the Chipperfield building around the theme ‘Body and Pain’. The space also features Yves Netzhammer’s video work ‘Addresses of Impossible Places’ (2009).