فير زملر غاليري Sfeir-Semler Gallery

Balthasar Burkhard

Balthasar Burkhard (b. 1944, Bern, Switzerland; d. 2010, Bern, Switzerland) was a Swiss photographer who mainly worked in black and white photography. He printed his own silver prints himself, often in huge dimensions, and framed his images in iron frames behind glass. He is internationally recognized as an important minimalist artist, with works in several international museums and public collections. He often worked in cycles. His cityscapes, landscapes, or deserts are mostly taken from the bird's-eye-view perspective: photographed from helicopters or atop skyscrapers. His photographs of megacities such as Tokyo, Mexico City, and Chicago are juxtaposed against expansive sandy desert scenes. In the cycle "Rio Negro", Balthasar Burkhard worked in the rain forests of the Amazon. In this series, his lens is captured from nature.

Balthasar Burkhard, Aile de faucon, 1988, 185 x 260 cm

Gallery Exhibitions

Selected Solo Exhibitions

2018

  • Balthasar Burkhard, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

2017

  • Balthasar Burkhard, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany

2014

  • Balthasar Burkhard - in memoriam, Sfeir-Semler Gallery, Hamburg, Germany

2011

  • Balthasar Burkhard:voici des fruits, des fleurs, des feuilles et des branches, Musée des Arts Contemporains de la Communauté francaise de Belguiqe, Grand Hornu, Belgum

2008

  • Balthasar Burkhard, Reconnaissances 1969-2007, Musée de la ville Strasbourg

2007

  • Songlines. Balthasar Burkhard, Museum Franz Gertsch, Burgdorf, Switzerland

2006

  • Balthasar Burkhard. Two Mountains, TAM, Tokyo Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan

2004

  • Balthasar Burkhard. Omnia, Kunstmuseum, Bern, Switzerland 

  • Balthasar Burkhard, The Fruitmarket Gallery, Edinburgh, UK

2001

  • Viewpoint 1, Kirchner Museum, Davos, Switzerland 

  • Voyage, Kunstmuseum, Thun, Switzerland 

  • Balthasar Burkhard, Helmhaus, Zurich, Switzerland

1999

  • Balthasar Burkhard, Musée de Grenoble, Grenoble, France

1997

  • Eloge de l'Ombre, Musée Rath, Geneva, Switzerland 

  • Die Schwerkaraft der Berge, Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland; Kunsthalle Krems, Austria

1995

  • Magasin au foin, Grand-Hornu, Le Consortium, Dijon, France

Selected Group Exhibitions

2014

  • Over water. Photograph and painting from 1800 until today, Bucerius Kunst Forum, Hamburg, Germany

2013

  • Flowers & Mushrooms, Museum of Modern Art Salzburg, AustriaCONCRETE - Photography and Architecture, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland 

  • VUES DÉN HAUT, Center Pompidou-Metz, Metz, France

2011

  • Winterwelten, Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, Switzerland 

  • The Art of Deceleration, Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg, Germany 

  • Von Horizonten - Set 8, Fotomuseum Winterthur, Switzerland

2009

  • Dream and Reality, Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern, Switzerland

2008

  • Gallery Tschudi, Glarus, Switzerland

2006

  • Villa Jelmini - the complex of respect, Kunsthalle, Bern, Switzerland

2005

  • Useful-sweet-museum. The photographed animal, Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany 

  • Höhenluft. The Mountain in Swiss Art, Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo, Japan

2004

  • Vagues 2. Hommages et digressions, Musée de Malraux, Le Havre, France 

  • Wolkenbilder, Aargauer Kunsthaus Aarau, Switzerland

2003

  • Mémoires du visible, Musée du Louvre, Paris, France

2002

  • Wallflowers, Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland

2001

  • Trade. Goods, ways and values in world trade today , Fotomuseum, Winterthur, Switzerland

2000

  • Le Désert, Fondation Cartier pour l'contemporain, Paris, France

1999

  • Missing link, Kunstmuseum Bern, Switzerland

1996

  • Comme un Oiseau, Fondation Cartier pour l'contemporain, Paris, France

Public Collections