Zurich’s surprising public art scene

This article is part of the FT Globetrotter feature. Zurich Guide

Walking through the streets of Zurich allows one to marvel at an extraordinary variety of public art. It begins in the Middle Ages, with carved drinking fountains; it continues with sculptures, reliefs and murals from the 19th and 20th centuries; and today it includes multimedia installations by contemporary artists. This formal public art is in constant dialogue with informal art.

In 1977, spray-painted figures began appearing all over the city: a lanky Cyclops in a car park, a fertility goddess on a bench, a menacing spider in an alleyway. We were living in Geneva at the time, and my mother took me (aged nine) on a field trip to Zurich to look for work by the anonymous “Zurich Sprayer.” This was long before graffiti became commonplace, when Swiss cities were bastions of Brutalism, and it was an exciting day out. There was something exhilarating about the vitality of these rapidly and defiantly created creatures: whimsical and irreverent, but also ancient and mythological.

It took the Zurich police two years to discover the identity of the artist: Harald Naegeli, from a wealthy background in Züriberg. He was fined and sentenced to nine months in prison. His relationship with the authorities remains turbulent: the city seems to be always torn between recognising his talent and condemning his vandalism.

In 2018, after being commissioned to paint a “Dance of Death” next to a staircase in the prestigious Greater Munster In 2020, Naegeli was awarded the Zurich City Art Prize (with a generous prize money of 50,000 Swiss francs, which falls short of the 100,000 Swiss franc fine from 1981). That same year, Naegeli returned to live in Zurich after almost 40 years in Germany, already old and ill. However, within days of the lockdown beginning, he was back on the streets painting dozens of figures of death and pink flamingos (symbolising freedom).

Several of them were on the walls of the Kunsthaus; the museum quickly removed the works and filed criminal charges against Naegeli, but a couple of years later it was organizing an exhibition of his work, drawing on Zurich police archives for images of his missing pieces.

The irony of Naegeli’s drama is that it has occurred in a city so fond of public art. Zurich has had public sculpture since the late Middle Ages; since the 1940s, it has been prescribed that up to 1.5 percent of the capital costs of new buildings must be devoted to public art. The city has an entire department devoted to new commissions. Here are three suggested walks to take in the highlights.

Around the Paradeplatz: patrician grandeur

Standing on Parade Squareis surrounded by 150 years of grand buildings with grand art. Turn your back briefly on the Sprüngli Confectionery and look across the square to the classical figures atop the Beaux-Arts Credit Suisse building (Charles-François-Marie Iguel, 1882), then left to Franz Fischer’s wonderful 1958 relief, “Work,” which brings texture and life to the severe UBS façade (there are also attractive Fischer reliefs on the Talacker side of the building).

Facing Sprüngli Street, on Bahnhofstrasse, stands the exuberant “Big Boom” (Silvio Mattioli, 1978-79): a metaphor, perhaps, for the sugar fevers induced by the confectionery. Walk along Bahnhofstrasse towards the station, admiring the neo-Gothic sculptures on the façade of the Grieder clothing store (no. 30) and the Art Nouveau lions (an emblem of Zurich) at no. 32. At the top of Pelikanstrasse stands a monumental work by the renowned Zurich concrete artist Max Bill: “Pavilion-Sculpture” (1979-83), which functions as a sculpture, bench and play area. Cross Bahnhofstrasse and go down Augustinergasse to Municipal Squarewhere you will find a beautiful figure of Moderation above the fountain (1761).

On Weinplatz, in front of the Tar At the hotel is an elegant fountain from 1908. If you look closely at the nearby bollards, you’ll notice that one is painted gold. It’s a remnant of artist and Yello frontman Dieter Meier’s 2008 installation “Le Rien en Or” (“Golden Nothing”), in which he gilded a range of common street objects, from manhole covers to railings. This must be one of the most glamorous pieces of informal art, a fitting piece for a country where 70 percent of the world’s gold production is refined. A short walk along the same bank of the Limmat River towards the lake will bring you to the Stadthaus (town hall); to the right of the main entrance you’ll find another of Meier’s gilded interventions, this time a section of sewer pipe.

Continue along the Limmat River to the lake. If you stand on the lake side of the Quaibrücke, where the bridge meets the mainland, and look out over the lake, you will see Zurich’s only underwater artwork. “Head high” (“Cheer up!”) —whoever did it remains anonymous, but it’s a reminder that in this visual city, you can always find joy in the next work of art.

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Sculpture walk along the lake

There are few more charming places to stroll than the lakeside promenade from Bellevuepatz to Zürichhorn Park. The promenade and park are packed with sculptures. The best way to explore them is simply by strolling, but here are my favourites:

• Henry Moore’s Sheep Piece (1971-72) is delightfully organic. It stands on a small knoll overlooking the lake. Behind it, admire the rusting concrete and Corten wood Pyramid building (Justus Dahinden, 1969-71), now a cosmetic surgery clinic.

• “Sculpture in two elements” by Ödön Kochs” (1974-75) is a curvilinear abstraction from the 1970s in perfect contrast to the angular pyramid.

• Summary of the work “Figure I” by Hans Aeschbacher (1955-56)

• Silver architectural drinking fountain by Markus Feldmann (1980)

• The elegant “Female Figure” by Hildi Hess (1957-65)

• Jean Tinguely’s exuberant, kinetic “Eureka” (1963-64), which comes to life at 11 a.m., 3 p.m. and 7 p.m. every day from April to October.

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From the old town to the university: death, hell, flamingos and flowers

Start at the corner of Schifflände and Krugstrasse, where you’ll find a Naegeli death figure dancing on a café table. On Rämistrasse, Zurich’s main gallery street, there are several recent Naegelis. As an accomplished outsider artist, Naegeli is always drawn to the outside of galleries and museums: on Waldmannstrasse, just beyond the Tobias Mueller gallery, there’s a flamingo (you might have to move your trash can to see it); another, further up the corner of Hirschengraben, points to a museum display panel.

On Heimplatz outside the Kunsthaus are several major sculptures, including Auguste Rodin’s “The Gates of Hell” (Naegeli controversially painted a deathly figure behind them in 2020), Jacques Lipchitz’s “The Song of the Vowels” (1931–32), Marino Marini’s “The Miracle” (1959–60), and Pipilotti Rist’s gigantic flower light installation from 2020 (best seen after dark).

Continue up Rämistrasse. Outside the law school is an elegant abstract painting by Santiago Calatrava, who also designed the astonishing law library behind it (2004). Right at the top of the hill is the Kantonsschule, and at the top of the stairs on the right you’ll find another Naegeli climbing the railing. Opposite is an abstract painting by Markus Feldmann (1983), evoking the Italianate arches of the university behind, as well as the “3-part cube of 15 units, extroverted” (1968) by the Swiss concrete artist Carlo Vivarelli.

Cross the street and enter Schönberggasse. Across the lawn, to the left, on the wall of the Deutsches Seminar, is Naegeli’s hauntingly sensual “Undine” (1978), the first of his works to be included on the list. It’s the perfect spot for a picnic, a dystopian “Déjeuner sur l’herbe.” Look away from the grand horizontality of “Undine” and you’ll see Vivarelli’s proudly vertical and exquisitely articulated “Column” (1967-69).

Further up the Rämistrasse you reach the main building of the ETH University, which houses a magnificent collection of 20th-century Swiss sculptures. With the spirit of adventure that distinguishes FT readers, you descend into the underground car park and the curious subterranean world of the Sprayer of Zürich. Here you will find 22 Naegelis from the 1970s: a collection that is as playful as it is menacing. You have earned yourself a cocktail.

What is your favourite piece of public art in Zurich? Let us know in the comments below. And follow FT Globetrotter on Instagram at @FTGlobetrotter