Current - Kunsthalle Messmer

Kunsthalle Messmer: Public guided tour every Sunday at 2:30 p.m.

Hermann Hesse

Ready to go

Poet, painter and Nobel Prize winner

21.03.2026 – 11.10.2026

Photo Martin Hesse © Martin Hesse Erben: Illustration: Hermann Hesse, Bigogno, watercolor, 1925

Hermann Hesse, 1936 Photo Martin Hesse © Martin Hesse Erben

With the exhibition “Hermann Hesse – Ready for Departure” (21.03.-11.10.26), the Kunsthalle Messmer is dedicating an extraordinary exhibition to the poet and Nobel Prize winner Hermann Hesse and showing him from a surprising side: as a painter.

The most widely read German-language author of the 20th century, known for works such as Der Steppenwolf, Siddhartha and Glasperlenspiel, used painting as a creative counterpoint to writing and as a means of processing personal impressions.

The exhibition brings together more than 130 works – from luminous watercolors and ink drawings to illustrated poems and letters, typoscripts and precious first editions – and shows how Hesse’s artistic and literary work enter into dialogue with each other. The colorful works reflect his love of nature, his longing for harmony and central life themes such as new beginnings, renewal and the search for identity.

From the beginning of his painting in Bern to his inspiring time in Montagnola and the influences of the alternative community on Monte Verità: the exhibition lets you rediscover Hesse!

Image titles from top left to right:
Tessiner, Bergdorf, watercolor, 1920;
Casa Camuzzi, watercolor, 1930;
Bern, Garten mit Schelmenhüsli, watercolor, 1917;
Sorengo, watercolor, 1922
© Kunststiftung Sparkasse Pforzheim Calw

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