The first comprehensive exhibition in Basel is dedicated to the idiosyncratic cosmos of the Art Brut artist Peter Wirz. “He drew in a futuristic-symbolic style,” Peter Wirz writes about himself, “combined with decorations of his own system and mystical.” Confronted with a life marked by exclusion and incomprehension, the draftsman, researcher and inventor responded early on by designing a personal universe. Christian-Western motifs, heraldic signs and typographic inventions speak of dignity, power and traditions. Death sentences, scenes of torture and humiliation are likewise lovingly illustrated by the artist in the standard DIN A4 format.
Peter Wirz (1915–2000) was the first son of the well-known ethnologist Paul Wirz (1892–1955). The ailing child did not fit into his parents’ eventful life design. He grew up with an uncle in eastern Switzerland, then with aunts in Basel, who raised him strictly Catholic. As a pupil he was met with headshaking, later failed in apprenticeships and employment, and after periods in supervised living also became a patient at the Psychiatric Clinic Friedmatt in Basel. In his free time, however, the assistant gardener Peter Wirz remained above all a passionate creator and interpreter of his art. Full of abysmal tenderness, the parallel world of “Wirziana” still touches our theatrical present 26 years after his death.
The exhibition takes its title from the publication by Andres Müry (Vexer Verlag, 2000) and is made possible by loans from: Dadi Wirz, Reinach; open art museum, Stiftung für schweizerische Naive Kunst und Art Brut, St. Gallen (gift of Dadi Wirz); Andres Müry, Basel.
OPENING
Tuesday, March 10, 6:00 to 8:00 pm
Exhibition open March 13 to April 25, 2026:
Friday and Saturday from 11 am to 6 pm,
and by appointment (info@klauslittmann.com)
Address:
FOR ART – a temporary art intervention by Littmann Kulturprojekte
Rittergasse 25, CH-4051 Basel
Free admission
The book Wirziana is available during the exhibition at the special price of CHF 30.00 (bookstore price: CHF 48.00).
more about FOR ART – A Temporary Art Intervention by Littmann Kulturprojekte. Basel 2025–2028
