
Kunsthaus Zürich
Surrealist mural once splashed with wine in a nightclub bar, now restored above the museum cafe counter.
Location
About this audio guide
This guide to Kunsthaus Zürich centers on a Max Ernst mural painted in 1934 for a nightclub bar, the Dancing Mascotte, after board member Wladimir Rosenbaum threatened to resign unless the club hired a surrealist. Ernst spread oil across eighteen wooden panels of tangled petals and a reclining woman, hiding his own face somewhere in the foliage. For roughly three decades the painting hung where drinkers leaned their chairs back against it, soaking up cigarette smoke and spilled wine. Look behind the café counter today to find the very canvas that survived it.
This audio guide was created using AI.
Similar places
Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst
Contemporary art galleries in a former brewery, funded by a grocer's one percent pledge to culture.
Löwenbräukunst Areal: Kunstzentrum Zürich
Converted nineteenth-century brewery housing a cluster of contemporary art galleries and museums.
Cabaret Voltaire
Former tavern back room where a hungry poet's deal to sell more beer and sausages launched an art rebellion.
Photobastei 2.0
Two-floor photography museum and bar inside former art-school classrooms, saved from closure by a public crowdfunder.
Kunsthalle Zürich
Non-collecting contemporary art hall in a former brewery, staging temporary exhibitions that vanish within weeks of closing.
Atelier Hermann Haller
Sculptor's preserved studio of life-size nudes and palm-sized terracotta figures, built to his own design in nineteen thirty two.