Galerie
Mark Müller

Giovanni Segantini (1858–1899) is one of the most important painters of the late nineteenth century. In his paintings he created the image of an existence in harmony with nature. The simple, rural figures are embedded in the eternal cycle of the seasons, of birth, existence, and death. Beginning in 1887, in his Graubünden alpine scenes, the artist meticulously depicted the mountain landscape in allegorical visions of radiant luminosity, as a kind of painterly alternative to the reality of urban life. While Segantini, with his idealistic visions, is considered one of the main representatives of European Symbolism around the fin de siècle, Italian Divisionism, which was greatly influenced by him, shows him to be an innovator of painting.
Contemporary artworks will be grouped around the central series of works from the Otto Fischbacher Giovanni Segantini Foundation and other loans from public and private collections. The specific contributions by Dove Allouche (*1972), Philippe Rahm (*1967), Patrick Rohner (*1959), and Not Vital (*1948) revolve around the perception of mountains and the experience of nature from our present-day perspective. The exhibition will take place on the occasion of the 200th anniversary of the St. Gallen-based company Christian Fischbacher and will be an homage to the Otto Fischbacher Giovanni Segantini Foundation.