May 2006: FEAST OF COLOUR - Kunsthaus, Zurich - A Family Collection

Werner Merzbacher, born in 1928 in Oehringen (in southern Germany) came toSwitzerland in 1939 as a child refugee. Having trained in business, in 1949he emigrated to the United States where he married Gabrielle Mayer two yearslater. The Merzbacher-Mayers lived for many years in New York where they enjoyedclose contact to artists, gallerists and other collectors. More recently the familyhas settled in Ascona and in the Canton of Zurich.

The starting point of the collection was the exclusive group of paintings thatGabrielle Merzbacher-Mayer inherited from her grandparents, Bernhardand Auguste Mayer. Since the 1960s the couple have extended their collectionwith the purchase of further important works. A number of items, formerlyowned by the Mayer Family, have been lent by their owners for the duration ofthe exhibition, thereby allowing the organisers to reconstruct the familycollection from its early days right up to the present.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
In the Greenery (Woman Seated in a Garden), 1890-1
Oil on Cradled Panel, 55 x 46 cm

Pablo Picasso
Le couple (Les Misérables), 1904
Oil on Canvas, 100.5 x 81.5 cm