1000 Years of Swiss Art

Henry Fuseli's phantasmagorical visions, Paul Klee's inward-looking pictures, Alberto Giacometti's elongated sculptures and Le Corbusier's gleaming buildings are all part of the legacy of Swiss art. Combining specialized essays by various scholars with 306 plates (one-third in color), this selective survey proceeds from luminous ninth-century frescoes in a Benedictine monastery to cybernetic ``video sculpture.'' Along the way it samples medieval illuminated manuscripts, Renaissance churches, Baroque palaces and abbeys, Arnold Bocklin's symbolist paintings, 19th-century Swiss urban planning and the contemporary ``global suburb.'' Also represented are artists who sought refuge or inspiration in Switzerland, among them Hans Holbein the Younger, John Ruskin, Ernst Kirchner and Dadaist Hans Arp. Led by Swiss art historian Horat, the contributors depict Switzerland as an oasis of cross-culturalism. (Jan.)