Invisible beings in art

Today, the 19th century is mostly associated with great technological advances and is regarded as a golden age of rationality and science. At the same time, it was a heyday of belief in miracles and the supernatural, driven not least by Romanticism and, from the second half of the 19th century onwards, by spirit photography, for example. The heyday of the Industrial Revolution was also the heyday of séances, illusionists, and so-called »freak shows«. With over 160 works and objects from the last 250 years, Ghosts. Visualizing the Supernatural explores the rich visual culture that developed in the Western world around the theme of ghosts in the 19th century – with reference to a rich past, because ghosts in all conceivable forms are represented in human cultures worldwide. The special exhibition will be on display at the Kunstmuseum Basel from September 20, 2025, to March 8, 2026.

At the beginning of the exhibition, an overview of films and children's book illustrations illustrates how widespread ghosts are in pop culture. Visitors then jump back to the 19th century, where the focus of the show is on paintings and, in particular, ghost photographs, which were used for the first time to »prove« the existence of ghostly beings. The second half of the exhibition is devoted to artistic explorations of the late 20th and early 21st centuries, in which ghosts can serve as a connection to the afterlife and as a visualization of the unspeakable or traumatic. The exhibition features numerous famous artists from three centuries, including Nicolai Abildgaard, William Blair Bruce, William Blake, Eugène Delacroix, Thomas Demand, Nicole Eisenman, Max Ernst, Urs Fischer, Katharina Fritsch, Meret Oppenheim, Sigmar Polke, Rosemarie Trockel, Benjamin West, and Erwin Wurm.