Wilhelm Schmid Museum

The museum in the Brè district dedicated to Wilhelm Schmid (1892-1971) is located in the house where the Aargau painter lived.

Schmid was a leading exponent of the artistic ferments of early 20th-century Berlin. Among the founders of the Novembergruppe, he is considered the only leading Swiss of the New Objectivity and Magic Realism in northern Europe. In 1937, after his work was deemed degenerate by the Nazis, he returned to Switzerland and settled in Brè. By testamentary disposition of his wife Maria, the City became the owner of their home and more than a thousand paintings and drawings.

The exhibition itinerary, entirely redesigned in 2021 for the 50th anniversary of the painter's death, documents the main moments of Schmid's artistic evolution and includes, in addition to a selection of paintings, architectural plans, ceramics, photographs, and some of the furniture and wall decorations he made. The collection constitutes the largest and qualitatively most prestigious corpus of his work.

The permanent exhibition is enriched by thematic exhibitions set up annually to delve into different aspects of the artist's work. In 2024, the in-depth focus is on Schmid's work as an architect, one of the most interesting yet little-studied aspects of his work. The exhibition offers an opportunity to view a selection of his most representative projects, including some previously unpublished ones.