Art Basel, Marvel and Matisse: highlights of Basel’s creative calendar in 2024

Home to globally-renowned art fair Art Basel, as well as over 40 museums in just 37 square kilometres - one of Europe’s highest concentration of museums - Basel is a must-visit for art enthusiasts. Basel offers a year-round calendar of exciting events and exhibitions, and this year is no different. From immersive experiences celebrating Marvel’s iconic superheroes, to the first Matisse retrospective in the German-speaking world for almost 20 years , the coming months are the perfect time to explore the brand new exhibitions coming to Basel as well as all the historical, cultural and gastronomic enticements the city has to offer. 

Here are some of our top picks from the coming months: 

Marvel: Universe of Superheroes, Messe Basel 

23rd March - 31st Aug

The only exhibition of its kind in Europe, Marvel: Universe of Superheroes celebrates more than 80 years of the Marvel universe and its iconic characters. Showcasing collectible objects, original comic and animation art, early comic books and movie props, this hugely immersive, interactive experience is a must-see for any Marvel fan. 

Tickets from £24 per person, available here. 

Transform! Designing the Future of Energy - Vitra Design Museum

23rd March 2024 - 1st Sept 2024 

Transform! Designing the Future of Energy looks at the energy sector's ongoing transformation through a design lens. Showcasing everything from commonplace products harnessing renewable energy to the architecture of solar houses and wind turbines, this new exhibition portrays an imaginative future filled with intelligent transportation systems and self-sustaining urban landscapes. It aims to answer the question of how the design industry, governmental policies, and individual actions can collectively propel us towards a sustainable future. 

Tickets from £13 per person, available here. 

Summer Show, Fondation Beyeler 

19th May 2024 - 11th Aug 2024

For the first time in the Fondation Beyeler’s 25-year history, the entire museum and its surrounding park will be transformed into an experimental presentation of contemporary art. With contributions by Michael Armitage, Anne Boyer, Federico Campagna, Ian Cheng, Elysia Crampton, Marlene Dumas and more, Summer Show will create a “living organism” that changes forms throughout its lifespan. Expect to see paintings, sculptures, films, installations, and performances, all with connections to one another and the existing in-house collection.  

Tickets will be available to buy here. 

When they See Us, Kuntsmuseum 

25th May 2024 - 27th Oct 2024

Inspired by 2019 Netflix miniseries, this special exhibition arrives at Kunstmuseum Basel from its Gegenwart counterpart, and showcases figurative paintings by Black artists from Africa and the African Diaspora dating from the 1920s through to the present. Sound stations and atmospheric staging create a multilayered experience and provide vital context for over 100 years of Black figurative painting. 

Tickets will be available to buy here. 

Mika Rottenberg: Antimatter Factory, Museum Tinguely

5th June 2024 - 13th Nov 2024

Argentine-Israeli artist Mika Rottenberg brings her surrealist style to this new exhibition at Museum Tinguely, which displays a representative selection of Rottenberg’s films and installations, as well as new drawings and interactive kinetic works. Her colourful, painterly films satiriseour excessive consumerism, and depicts her absurd protagonists as cogs in an ever-turning wheel. 

Tickets will be available to buy here. 

Art Basel, Basel

13th-16th June 2024

The highlight of Basel’s art calendar, Art Basel is one of the world's premier contemporary art fairs and brings together over 200 selected galleries from around the world. Over three days, artists, collectors, curators, and art enthusiasts will come together to Messe Basel exhibition centre to view 20th and 21st century art from five continents. 

Tickets from £31 per person, available here. Packages for the Art Basel Riverboat Hotel are available now and start at £428 per night. 

Basel Architecture Week

7th-14th September 2024

Basel is recognised as Switzerland’s architectural capital, home to a large number of internationally active architecture forms and with a highly diverse range of historic and modern buildings. The second Basel Architecture Week focuses on the invisible infrastructures that keep our cities alive, as well as sustainable conceptual decisions, through a series of walks, bike rides, readings, dialogues, exhibitions and podcasts.

Nike: Form Follows Motion, Vitra Design Museum 

21th Sept 2024 - 2nd March 2025

In Autumn 2024, the Vitra Design Museum presents the inaugural exhibition about iconic sports brand Nike. The exhibition highlights the highs and lows of Nike’s 50-year history, and takes a closer look at design hallmarks such as the famous ‘swoosh’ logo and game-changing products such as Air Max. As well as exploring the past, the exhibition also covers current research devoted to the brand’s future materials and sustainability.

Tickets will be available to buy here. 

Matisse: Invitation to the Voyage, Fondation Beyeler

22nd Sept 2024 - 26th Jan 2025

The Fondation Beyeler will be exhibiting the first Henri Matisse retrospective in the German-speaking world for almost 20 years. Inspired by Charles Baudelaire’s poem Invitation to the Voyage (1857), the exhibition of the same name is made up of over 80 major works in Matisse’s signature bold, expressive style.Tickets will be available to buy here. 

Paula Rego: Power Games, Kuntsmuseum 

28th Sept 2024 - 2nd Feb 2025

This exhibition marks the first in Switzerland for influential Portuguese-British artist Paula Rego (1935–2022), who ranks among the most exciting figurative painters in recent memory. Showcasing key works from her 50-year career, ‘Power Games’ presents paintings, mannequin-like objects and graphic works centred around the female experience and the fates of women, both real and imagined. 

Tickets will be available to buy here. 

Ends

Editors notes

Basel, Switzerland, is city of exciting contrasts. Modern day architecture sits alongside historical buildings and a young and dynamic art scene exists alongside world-renowned museums.

With 40 museums, the highest concentration of museums in the country, Basel is regarded as Switzerland's cultural capital and is also the home of the well-known international art fair – Art Basel.

Classic modernism meets street art in Basel. You can find art around every corner throughout the city - Pablo Picasso, Jonathan Borofsky and Jean Tinguely are just a few of the artists who enrich the cityscape with their works.

With an event calendar filled with festivals, street parties, open-air concerts and open-air cinemas, it is a city that loves the outdoor life. At the heart of this lies the Rhine river, Basel’s unofficial emblem and where tourists and locals alike flock to in spring and summer.