Basel Museums

For a city of only 190,000 people, Basel has over 40 museums for visitors to explore. Yes, there is a very good art museum, but then every major European city also has a good art museum. So instead we focused on exploring the unique museums that only Basel can offer.

First on our list was the Basel Paper Mill, located in the same building as an original paper mill from the 1500s right off the Rhine. Because Gutenberg invented movable metal type in Mainz just up the river, his invention spread very quickly south and Basel became one of the first major printing centers in the late 1500s.

The museum has preserved many of the original printing equipment from the days of Gutenberg to today. Many of the exhibits are live demonstrations -- from the water-powered mill used to beat cotton rags "to a pulp" to the tools used in the cast-and-mold system of making metal type. The hands-on exhibits allow you to make your own sheet of paper, set metal type by hand and have the type printed on a letter-press as you watch.

Also unique to Basel is the Museum Tinguely which is dedicated to the lifework of Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), a Basel native best known for his kinetic sculptures. Whimsical and raw, his sculptures capture the spirit of fun and delight with child-like wonder. When we visited the museum, there was a special exhibit called "Art Machines/Machine Art" which featured a range of works inspired by Tinguely. Among my favorites include a very noisy musical machine and a mechanical arm that drew the same random lines repeatedly. Also included in this exhibit was a series of digital art generators.

However, the ultimate "museum" experience was by appointment only. The Basel School of Design has one of the largest collections of Swiss posters dating from 1880 to the present. The archives are hidden in the basement of the old Gewerbemuseum and viewings are available only by appointment with Rolf Thalmann, the curator. Dr. Thalmann was kind enough to spend two hours showing us selected originals from the collection, always explaining in detail the significance of each poster along with anecdotal stories that only someone who has been caring for these posters for 25 years would know. This is the kind of treat that graphic designers dream about and I feel very lucky to have been able to have this experience.

We also discovered that Zurich had a design museum and decided to take the train there for a visit. The featured exhibit was a very humorous show called "Wouldn’t it be nice… wishful thinking in art and design" where designers take their utopian concepts to the extreme.

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