The stunning rooms of Berney Fine Arts regularly host exhibitions that bring together works from different eras, cultures and styles.
The two art dealers Angela Berney and Simon Studer use their expertise to create unique exhibitions that show contextual, carefully curated juxtapositions of artworks. Artists such as Joan Miró or Henri Matisse and works from the post-war period, for example by Frank Stella, are juxtaposed with contemporary art. These are often works that are rarely seen in public.
Simon Studer has been dealing in important works of twentieth century and contemporary art and photography since 1993. He is an expert in modern and contemporary art. He also had the full confidence of Marina Picasso, whose collection he managed.
Angela Berney is an art historian. Over the last years she has built an international network of highly acclaimed art historians, museum curators and important collectors. Since 2011 she has focused on 20th century art and has been advising mostly private clients. As the founder of “Vermögenswert Kunst”., she offers expert advise and services around collection management such as inventories, appraisals.
Cross Collecting is a curatorial narrative and practice. It is both a collecting and exhibition technique that follows the taste and the vision of the collector and the curator. The dialogue of artefacts inspires and stimulates the imagination.
It is about cultural expansion and discoveries, not only for collectors but also for artists. Artists like Pablo Picasso, André Derain were inspired by Tribal Art and introduced these artefacts to the western world. At their same time, their work was inspired by these artefacts which changed the history of art in the 20th century!
Cross collecting has been around since Antiquity when wealthy Romans showed objects and statuary from previous periods and styles side by side with contemporary artworks. The evolution of taste and science culminated during Humanistic Renaissance and Italy’s rediscovery of Antiquity. This lead to the creation of the “Wunderkammer”. Rare stones, art objects, taxidermized animals and birds, tribal art, exquisite books, medieval manuscripts and paintings formed part of the same collection and were exhibited in a single study room.
The 19th century saw the separation of science from art, categorizing periods and styles for educational reasons. This was the time of creation of our Natural History Museums with distinct departments in Geology, Zoology and Anthropology. Antique and Modern Art Galleries were opened, Art History and Connoisseurship flourished.
In the 20th century, collectors followed the trend and rather focused on one single movement. Auction houses all over the world divided their auction catalogues in distinct categories such as Old Master Paintings, Modern and Postwar Art, Contemporary Art, Tribal Art, Antiques and many more.
Today Cross Collecting is back: museums like the “Musée de la Chasse et de la Nature” in Paris invite contemporary artists to exhibit their art in dialogue with the specialized artefacts of their permanent collections, the Louvre in Paris invited famed Israeli artist Michal Rovner in 2015 to project her videos on antique artefacts, art fairs such as “Frieze Masters” in London evidentiate this trend by mixing Antique and Tribal objects with fine art of various centuries thus recreating a dialogue between artefactgs.
Axel Vervoordt, the famous art dealer and decorator was a pioneer when he exhibited extraordinary examples of Asian objects in relationship with Minimal Western Art housed in the Venetian Palazzo of Mariano Fortuny offering an art experience which was unheard of at the time.
Ernst Beyeler, co-founder of ART Basel and founder of the Fondation Beyeler Museum in Riehen very much believed in this curatorial approach and regularly exhibited tribal artefacts in dialogue with modern masters.