The Jewelry of Bernhard Schobinger at The Museum of Fine Arts Houston September 2026.

H All our Fine Art Magazine blog readers enjoy craft and art as one seen in the jewelry of Bernhard Schobinger om display the the Museum of Fine Arts Houston in September 2026 

 

Bernhard Schobinger, Lightning Rod 

Necklace (Blitzableiterkette), 1992. Lightning conductor, fire-gilded copper, rose quartz, stainless steel and gold.   

In September, Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger highlights the groundbreaking work of the Swiss avant-garde artist 

 In September the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston will present Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger, tracing the radical career of Swiss avant-garde artist Bernhard Schobinger, who has created some of the most distinctive, influential and pathbreaking jewelry of the past five decades. This is the first exhibition in the U.S. to examine Schobinger’s groundbreaking work. 

Alkek Williams chair of the MFAH, “Over the course of more than five decades, Bernhard Schobinger has articulated a singular and influential vision such as the above piece by Bernhard Schobinger,~Lightning Rod~ 

Necklace (Blitzableiterkette), 1992. Lightning conductor, fire-gilded copper, rose quartz, stainless steel and gold.   

Going Underground will feature 53 pivotal pieces of experimental jewelry and select sculpture from 1968 to the present, with necklaces, bracelets, and rings drawn from prominent private collections and the holdings of the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. The installation will be on view on the second floor of the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building September 3, 2026 – January 3, 2027. 

Commented Gary Tinterow, director and Margaret 

contemporary jewelry, positioning the medium 

within the broader field of postwar art. This exhibition, the first of its kind in the United States, reflects the museum’s dedication to presenting rigorous, historically grounded examinations of artists whose work has redefined the boundaries of artistic practice.” 

Cindi Strauss, Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design and Elizabeth Essner, Windgate Foundation Associate Curator of Craft, noted, “Schobinger’s practice engages deeply with the material and conceptual legacies of movements such as Dada and Concrete Art while embracing the disruptive ethos of punk. His works operate as complex assemblages in which found and precious materials coexist, challenging traditional hierarchies of value and inviting critical reflection on the cultural and physical histories embedded within each object.” 

One of the most significant artists working in contemporary jewelry, Bernhard Schobinger (born 1946, Zürich) reimagines it as a subversive medium, using scavenged and alternative materials to reveal their hidden histories: fishing lures and wedding rings foraged over his decades of diving to the bottom of Lake Zürich, near his longtime home in Richterswil; metal and asphalt shards dug out of a decrepit New York City street in the late 1970s; salvaged glass, nails and sawblades. 

Going Underground will explore the artist’s work in critical dialogue with the long shadow of World War II, the anarchy of Punk music, and the political and cultural forces that have shaped his life. Schobinger’s aesthetic inspirations include Dadaism and Concrete Art. His Swiss cultural inheritance as well as an abiding interest in Japanese culture have also shaped his jewelry. Schobinger’s pioneering work will invite audiences to explore the ways in which jewelry made from detritus, nature, and precious metals provokes new and unexpected meanings. 

Going Underground: The Jewels of Bernhard Schobinger will be accompanied by a fully illustrated scholarly catalogue with essays by Cindi Strauss, Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design, MFAH; Elizabeth Essner, Windgate Foundation Associate Curator for Craft, MFAH; Claudia Schmuckli, Holly Johnson and Parker Harris Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco; as well by as the artist. 

The MFAH will host the symposium Perspectives on Contemporary Jewelry: An International Symposium on September 26, 2026, focusing on Bernhard Schobinger and the German artist Dorothea Prühl’s work and influence across the field. Speakers include scholar Renate Luckner-Bien on an in-depth look into Dorothea Prühl’s life and work; artist Iris Eichenberg, head of metalsmithing at Cranbrook Academy of Art, discussing Prühl’s impact as a thinker, teacher, and form maker; Claudia Schmuckli, Holly Johnson and Parker Harris Chief Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, examining Bernhard Schobinger’s practice and its relation to Swiss contemporary art; and 

Cindi Strauss, Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, positioning Schobinger's jewelry as part of a global conversation within the field. 

Organization and Funding 

The exhibition is organized by Cindi Strauss, Sara and Bill Morgan Curator of Decorative Arts, Craft and Design and Elizabeth Essner, Windgate Foundation Associate Curator for Craft. 

Major support is provided by Sara and Bill Morgan. The exhibition is supported by: 

Additional generous support is provided by: 

Michael W. Dale Exhibitions 

Endowment for Decorative Arts, Craft, and Design 

Dr. Sara Sant’Ambrogio 

Deedie Potter Rose

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The Museum of Fine Art Houston's US debut of Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen, Berlin May 20 , 2026 opens.

Without traveling this summer to Europe, and Berlin this is your chance to see an exceptional collection of Berlin gallerists Heinz Berggruen's personal master works of Picasso, Klee, and others. 

MFAH Hosts U.S. Debut of Internationally Touring Exhibition Featuring Masterpieces from the Museum Berggruen, Berlin, opening Sunday, May 20, 2026 

With nearly 100 works, the exhibition highlights the careers of Picasso and Klee and  showcases Matisse’s signature cut-outs, Giacometti’s haunting, elongated sculptures  and paintings and drawings by Paul Cézanne and Georges Braque 

Houston – May 15, 2026 In May 2026, the Museum of  

Fine Arts, Houston will host the U.S. debut of a selection  

of modern masterworks by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee,  

Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti and other figures of  

the postwar European avant-garde, assembled by the 

famed gallerist and collector Heinz Berggruen. The  

exhibition explores Berggruen’s relationship with the  

artists, literary community and art-market network to  

which he was intimately connected in postwar Paris, 

through his Berggruen & Cie gallery on Rue de  

l’Université. Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from  

the Museum Berggruen will be on view at the MFAH May  

20 through September 13, 2026. 

“I am honored to bring to the U.S. and to Houston these  

exceptional masterworks from the collection of the  

Museum Berggruen in Berlin,” comments Gary  

Tinterow, director and Margaret Alkek Williams chair of  

the MFAH. “It is especially rewarding to introduce our  audiences to the life and legacy of Heinz Berggruen—a  pioneering art dealer, publisher and collector whom I  was privileged to know and work with for more than  

Pablo Picasso, The Yellow Sweater, 1939, oil on canvas,  Museum Berggruen, Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin. ©  2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso / Artists Rights Society  (ARS), New York

two decades. His exhibitions on the rue de l'Université were a must for every art collector  visiting Paris, and his museum in Berlin has become a pilgrimage point for connoisseurs.” 

“This exhibition is a chance to discover some less-familiar works by some of the greatest  artists of the 20th century, reflecting the personal taste of a discerning collector,” notes Ann  Dumas, consulting curator of European art at the MFAH. Dena Woodall, the museum’s  curator of prints and drawings, adds, “The exhibition blends both a monographic and  theme-based focus; it is the first time the museum is showing the work of Paul Klee in such  

depth—from his mysterious, lyrical drawings to his studies of color  and form, stemming from his time as a teacher at the Bauhaus.”  About the Exhibition 

Between the 1940s and the 1990s, Heinz Berggruen assembled a  singular collection of hundreds of modern masterworks, many of  them directly from the artists. As a dealer, he became his own best  client, forming his collection guided by his particular tastes and affinities. Picasso–Klee–Matisse: Masterpieces from the Museum  Berggruen presents more than 95 of the works – paintings,  watercolors, drawings, and sculptures – that Berggruen collected.  The MFAH exhibition combines thematic areas of focus, including  still life, portraits, the human figure, and landscapes, with in-depth  presentations devoted to individual artists, highlighting the entire  careers of Picasso and Klee and showcasing Matisse’s signature cut 

Paul Klee, Sealed Lady, 1930,  pen and watercolor on paper  on paperboard, Museum  Berggruen, Neue  

Nationalgalerie, Berlin.

outs, Giacometti’s haunting, elongated sculptures and paintings and drawings by Paul  Cézanne and Georges Braque.  

A gallery of the exhibition will be devoted to the story of Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007).  Born into a Jewish family in Berlin-Wilmersdorf, Germany, Berggruen studied literature at  university

and, in the 1930s, began to write on culture for  

German newspapers. In 1936 he fled Nazi persecution; 

emigrating to the United States, he initially worked in  

California as a freelance arts journalist before securing a 

curatorial post in 1939 at the San Francisco Museum of  

Modern Art. After World War II, Berggruen returned to  

Europe, and in 1947 founded his gallery in Paris,  

representing many of the artists whose works he began to  

collect privately. In 1980 he retired from his gallery and  

concentrated on expanding his own collection. In 2000,  

Berggruen placed the collection with the German state; it is  

now housed in the Museum Berggruen in Berlin 

Charlottenburg as part of the Berlin State  Museums/Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage. The  

Henri Matisse, Vegetal Elements, 1947,  gouache cutout on paper mounted on  canvas, Museum Berggruen, Neue  Nationalgalerie.

Organization and Funding 

Museum Berggruen is currently closed for renovation and  its collection is touring internationally.  

This exhibition is organized by the Museum Berggruen – Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, and  the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. 

Lead Corporate Underwriter: 

Lead foundation underwriting is provided by 

Jerold B. Katz Foundation 

Major support is provided by: 

Bobbie Nau 

Generous support is provided by: 

Jacquelyn Barish 

Martha and Richard Finger 

Barbara Kaplan and Joyce Z. Greenberg 

Anonymous 

Melza and Ted Barr 

Linnet F. Deily 

Marvy Finger Family Foundation 

The Radoff Family 

Sara Dodd-Denton and Will Denton 

Michael and Krista Dumas 

Marianne and Joseph Geagea 

Jesse Jones II and Terry Wayne Jones 

Mr. and Mrs. Rodney H. Margolis 

Kathy and John Orton 

Elizabeth and George Passela 

Esther and Gary Polland 

Leslie and Russ Robinson 

Merrianne Timko 

Cyvia and Melvyn Wolff 

About the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston  

Spanning 14 acres in the heart of Houston’s Museum District, the MFAH main campus  comprises the Audrey Jones Beck Building, the Caroline Wiess Law Building, the Lillie and  Hugh Roy Cullen Sculpture Garden and the Nancy and Rich Kinder Building. Nearby, two house museums—Bayou Bend Collection and Gardens, and Rienzi—present collections of  American and European decorative arts. The MFAH is also home to the Glassell School of  Art, with its Core Residency Program and Junior and Studio schools; and the International  Center for the Arts of the Americas (ICAA), a leading research institute for 20th-century  Latin American and Latino art. www.mfah.org 

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