World Museums

The Hunt Museum

The Hunt Collection is an internationally important collection of original works of art and antiquities. It is a personal one, formed by a couple who judged each piece that they collected according to the standard of its design, craftsmanship and artistic merit. These criteria they applied to objects of all ages - from the Neolithic to the twentieth century.

One of the strengths of the Hunt Collection is its medieval material. Its range covers objects commissioned and used by both ecclesiastical and lay patrons, and includes statues in stone, bronze and wood, crucifixes, panel paintings, metalwork, jewellery, enamels, ceramics and crystal. The importance of the collection is such that some items are currently on loan to the British Museum and the Victoria & Albert Museum in London, while others have been shown in international exhibitions.

The links between the Hunt collection and other museums can be illustrated by the fact that one fragment of the Beaufort, late 14th century armorial tapestry, is on display in the Hunt Museum in Limerick, while other fragments of the same tapestry are in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam; the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston and the Burrell Collection, Glasgow.

Besides the medieval, there is a wealth of other material ranging from Egyptian, Greek and Roman items through to the 19th century metalwork and ceramics. There is also an important collection of Irish archaeological material ranging from Neolithic flints, through Bronze Age gold, the unique 8th century Antrim Cross, hand pins, pennanular brooches, down to penal crucifixes of the 18th and 19th century. Irish decorative arts are represented too in a range of items including Irish delft, Belleek porcelain, 18th century Dublin tapestries as well as ecclesiastical and domestic silver.

The Museum Jean Tinguely

Dedicated to the life and work of Swiss artist Jean Tinquely, who died in 1991, the Museum is located in Solitude Park, on the right bank of the Rhine. The Museum was erected as a gift to the city and region of Basel by F. Hoffmann-La Roche LTD to mark the company's 100th anniversary in 1996. It was designed and built by Swiss architect Mario Botta and has been open to the public since 3 Ocober 1996.

The Museum's collection consists mainly of works generously donated by the artist's widow, Niki de Saint Phalle, and works from the holdings of F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd.

The Museum exhibits works spanning three and a half decades in the artist's life. Viewed in their broader context, they mirror artistic developments in the second half of this century.

On the gallery level the Museum offers a chronological presentation of works from the 1950s, 60s, 70s and 80s. The contrasts between the various rooms-like those in the artist's life-are striking.

In the 1950s Tinquely's works, often executed in black-and-white, possessed a stark, spare quality and were characterized by tremendous clarity. In 1959 his méta-matic drawing machines appeared, marking an important renewal.

1960 was the year of Tinquely's huge international success with his self-destructing Homage to New York. But the artist's style was changing rapidly. He now began working with arc-welded scrap iron, and his sculptures became more provocative and comical.

Following the completion of Eureka for the Expo 64 in Lausanne, his works became more 'sculpture-like' in the classical sense of the word. Works from this period are often all black and are apt to strike the viewer as abstract objects rather than as 'found' ones.

The 1980s were characterized by large-scale projects, among others the large altars. The altar-piece Lola, characteristic of this period, can be seen in the Museum.The next two rooms contain the monumental work Mengele - Dance of Death, a reflection on the inevitability of death.

In the large hall, monumental sculptures such as Grosse Méta Maxi-Maxi Utopia, Fatamorgana and Agricultural Platform are displayed.

The National Palace Museum

In Taipei is the National Palace Museum, in which is preserved and enormous amount of art and artifact from all of China's 6,000-year history. The National Palace Museum collection was originally the Imperial collection until Chiang liberated it. It was then moved several times until finally the Communists started causing trouble; then the whole thing was shipped to Taiwan. This is probably a good thing, since otherwise it would have been destroyed in the cultural revolution.

The Semitic Museum

The Semitic Museum was founded in 1898, and moved into its present location in 1903. It originally was the home of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, a departmental library, a repository for research collections, a public educational institute, and a center for archaeological exploration. Among the Museum's early achievements are the first scientific excavations in the Holy Land (at Samaria in 1907-1912) and important excavations at Nuzi and the Sinai, where the earliest alphabet was found. During World War II, the Museum was taken over by the Navy and closed to the public.