Skip to Content

The Arts Intel Report

Fresh Window: The Art of Display & Display of Art

Elmgreen & Dragset, Prada Marfa, 2012.

Until May 11, 2025
Paul Sacher-Anlage 2, 4002 Basel, Switzerland

Hermès is famous for the surrealism of its windows. Gene Moore turned the windows of Tiffany & Co. into glittering mindscapes. Simon Doonan put Barney’s on the map with his wild windows. And during the holidays, the windows of Bergdorf Goodman are one of New York City’s star attractions, right up there with the Rockettes and The Nutcracker. Terrariums for mannequins, storytelling venues, cabinets of curiosities—the store window is one of modernity’s great expressive mediums. The Tinguely Museum takes up the history of these in-between spaces in an exhibition that looks at how they converse with the art of their time, are often designed by artists (Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol, to name a few), and even serve as little theaters for performance. —Laura Jacobs

Photo: © 2024 ProLitteris, Zürich; Elmgreen & Dragset