Toni Gerber s interests, both formally and thematically, were very wide ranging. Crucial to them was the personal relationship, and above all the

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1 ALIGHIERO BOETTI, HEINZ BRAND, BALTHASAR BURKHARD, MICHAEL BUTHE, JAMES LEE BYARS, FRANZ EGGENSCHWILER, SAM EHRENBERG, RUPPRECHT GEIGER, FRIEDRICH KUHN, URS LÜTHI, BORIS NIESLONY, MARKUS RAETZ, DIETER ROTH, CLAUDE SANDOZ, JEAN-FRÉDÉRIC SCHNYDER, LEOPOLD SCHROPP, ALDO WALKER, FRANZ WANNER ALOIS MOSBACHER, ALBRECHT SCHNIDER, HANS STALDER After a minor reorganisation in May, this year s collection theme Nineteen Seventy is being shown in a completely new form with works from the Toni Gerber collection. In 2004 the gift from the busy Berne gallery owner enriched the collection of the Kunstmuseum with a large number of outstanding works which form an ideal complement to the focuses of the collection. Life with art was an integral part of the life of Toni Gerber ( ). Alongside his job as a secondary school teacher, in 1964 he opened a gallery in Bern s Old Town, which he ran as a one-man business. Toni Gerber was particularly interested in younger artists. At the same time a reference to his place of work, meaning Bern and Switzerland, was indispensable to his work as an intermediary. So in his gallery first on Nydeggstalden and later on Gerechtigkeitsgasse, he showed works by nowadays important Swiss artists at the start of their careers, always buying works for his collection from his own exhibitions. As a gallery owner, he offered a platform for innovative young Swiss art, promoting, along with Harald Szeemann and Jean-Christophe Ammann, the lively Swiss art scene of the 1960s and 1970s. But international names were also part of the diverse programme of Toni Gerber. His representation of Markus Raetz and Jean- Frédéric Schnyder was to a large extent responsible for Toni Gerber being seen in the international context as the Swiss avant-garde gallery-owner. Furthermore, so many of his artists were shown at documenta 5 that he can rightly be described as one of its most important gallery owners. His addiction to collecting continued to preoccupy him even after he gave up his gallery, which meant that the donation also introduced works from the last decade into Kunstmuseum Luzern. This aspect is apparent in contemporary pieces by the three artists Alois Mosbacher, Albrecht Schnider and Hans Stalder. Their works establish a connection with the present day while at the same time revealing a possible and imaginary development of the collection. For Toni Gerber gallery work, collecting and friendly association not only went hand in hand, but were mutually influential. The letters and postcards that Michael Buthe and Toni Gerber wrote to each other for almost 25 years document a friendship as well as the art world of the 1970s. Michael Buthe embellished his greetings into works of art, so that Toni Gerber showed them framed on the walls of his home gallery. The James Lee Byars letters are formally diverse and often fragile: they are written on, amongst other things, thin silk paper or inscribed directly into books.

2 Toni Gerber s interests, both formally and thematically, were very wide ranging. Crucial to them was the personal relationship, and above all the question of whether an artist could go his own way independent of fashionable trends and the greed for profit. So apart from the playful, often orientally inspired worlds of Michael Buthe, conceptual works by such artists as Heinz Brand, James Lee Byars, Boris Nieslony and Markus Raetz, as well as experiments with colour spaces by Rupprecht Geiger, found their way into the collection. Drawings and, above all, prints were well represented. For example Markus Raetz s trenchant thought-pictures, Claude Sandoz s Bern Series and the monochrome material studies of Franz Eggenschwiler. Toni Gerber also partly financed the printing of a portfolio by buying works in advance. And he sometimes funded foreign trips with purchases. Alongside the letters and works from the Toni Gerber collection, the presentation is complemented by individual works from the Kunstmuseum s collection. Toni Gerber owned either different versions of these works or very similar ones, so that they complete the picture of Gerber s collecting universe.

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