Swiss collectors' Aboriginal art collection debuts at Kunsthaus Zug

The Pierre and Joëlle Clément collection of contemporary Aboriginal Australian painting is being exhibited at Kunsthaus Zug, Switzerland, from now until January 12, 2020. The show, titled 'My Mother Country – Malerei der Aborigines,' is curated by museum director Matthias Haldemann and features a selection of works from the couple's holdings, plus a monographic focus on Emily Kame Kngwarreye. The Cléments, Swiss adventurers based in Zug, began collecting Aboriginal art in the late 1990s after Joëlle discovered it professionally. They opened a gallery in 2011 but closed it to focus on the collection, appointing artist, publisher, and curator Jean-Marie Reynier as director. Reynier and the Cléments deliberately avoided an ethnographic context, instead presenting the paintings as contemporary art. A book accompanying the show, designed by Lavinia Marinotti, requires the reader to tear open a sealed edge to access the content. The exhibition is the first in a European museum entirely devoted to Aboriginal Australian painting. The collection is not for sale, and the team plans to tour it to other museums worldwide, including Italy.