History
The construction of Kunsthalle Basel was prompted in 1864 by the merger of the Society of Basel Artists and the Basler Kunstverein founded in 1839. At the inauguration of the building in spring 1872, the former president of the Basler Kunstverein, Johann Jakob Im Hof, summed up the programme of the future Kunsthalle: ’to provide a place for the fine arts in order to stimulate, promote and spread artistic interest within our hometown as well as to foster friendly relations between artists and art lovers.’
In the 1920s and 1930s, before the opening of Kunstmuseum Basel, Kunsthalle Basel was home to and displayed a part of the public art collections. Due to financial issues in the 1950s, there was a time when the building was rented to the state, but, after being renovated in 1969, it was returned to the Kunstverein.
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