Emma Kunz at Hauser & Wirth Somerset (2026)

Hauser & Wirth Somerset, Durslade Farm, Bruton, 7 November 2026 – 4 April 2027. Text of the press release and of the learning notes, both linked from the exhibition page and filed here as sources/ingested/hauser-wirth-emma-kunz-press-release-2026.pdf and sources/ingested/hauser-wirth-emma-kunz-learning-notes-2026.pdf. The exhibition page repeats the first three paragraphs of the press release and the text About the artist. The glossary of the learning notes is shortened and the questions for discussion are left out. Text as published.

The wiki's reading of this source is on Emma Kunz — How the Drawings Were Made. Where these texts say more than the eyewitnesses quoted in Anna Kipke's thesis (sources/ingested/kipke-politiken-der-innerlichkeit-2021.md), they give no source. They disagree with Kipke in two places: the learning notes have Kunz using a pendulum by the age of 18, where Kipke has her introduced to it by Charlotte Gugelmann between 1930 and 1936, and they derive her name "Penta" from the pentagram, where Kipke derives it from pendeln, working the pendulum.

Press release

This November, Hauser & Wirth is pleased to present a major solo exhibition by Emma Kunz (1892–1963), conceived in partnership with the Emma Kunz Foundation. The exhibition brings together a rare selection of works that unfold across multiple galleries, offering an insight into the visionary practice of an artist, researcher, poet and healer. Although Kunz did not identify as an artist during her lifetime, she is now recognized as a pioneering figure whose interdisciplinary work anticipated many contemporary concerns around spirituality, ecology and holistic systems of knowledge.

Despite beginning her large-scale geometric drawings relatively late in life, after years of working as a healer and naturopath in Switzerland, Kunz's interest in drawing can be traced to her early school years. Employing a pendulum-guided technique known as radiesthesia, she created more than 400 geometric compositions, often developed through periods of concentrated observation lasting over a day. Rather than representing the visible world, these works served as tools for exploration, enabling Kunz to investigate underlying patterns and relationships that shaped both her research and therapeutic practice.

While Kunz's work emerged from the landscape and healing traditions of rural Switzerland, its presentation in Somerset establishes connections with a region whose cultural identity has long been shaped by narratives of myth, pilgrimage and the enduring relationship between landscape and belief. From longstanding theories surrounding the county's ley lines and energetic pathways, Somerset provides a resonant setting for an artist whose life's work sought to explore unseen connections between nature and human consciousness.

Presented across the galleries, the exhibition traces this remarkable body of work through a significant group of geometric compositions executed in graphite, coloured pencil and oil crayon on graph paper. Characterised by intricate structures that are at once highly precise and subtly irregular, the works reveal a visual language shaped by repetition, concentration and ritual. For Kunz, drawing was not a means of representation but a tool for inquiry, diagnosis and reflection. The exhibition comprises works of varying scale and chromatic intensity, highlighting the remarkable range of Kunz's visual language. Selected works will be displayed on sculptural wooden bases, inviting visitors to move around and encounter them from multiple viewpoints in a manner that reflects Kunz's own process of observation and making.

Two stone benches created by Christodoulos Panayiotou from AION A, the therapeutic mineral rock discovered by Kunz in 1942 in a Roman quarry in Würenlos, Switzerland, provide a moment for contemplation. The installation builds on the dialogue first developed through 'Emma Kunz: Visionary Drawings' at Serpentine Galleries, London (2019), where six benches from AION A were introduced as viewing devices and a means of physically connecting visitors with a material central to Kunz's healing practice and holistic philosophy. Here, the benches extend that encounter, inviting visitors into a closer engagement with the stone and the ideas that informed Kunz's research.

The exhibition concludes through a sequence of intimate gallery spaces, where quieter and more pared-back works on paper encourage close looking of the subtle variations within Kunz's practice. Together, the works on view reveal a practice rooted equally in intuitive curiosity and disciplined observation, producing images of extraordinary formal complexity and enduring relevance. The exhibition culminates with the final work Kunz completed before her death in 1963, depicting a transcendental portal illuminated in yellow, a color Kunz would regularly use at the final points of her works marking their completion. The meditative work provides a powerful conclusion to a lifelong investigation that remained remarkably consistent in vision and purpose.

About the artist. Emma Kunz (1892 – 1963) was a Swiss artist, researcher and healer whose intricate geometric drawings explore the relationship between nature, energy fields and human consciousness. Kunz considered herself first and foremost a researcher, using her drawings to investigate the underlying principles she believed governed people, nature and the wider world. Produced using graph paper, colored pencil and a pendulum-guided method, the drawings served as tools for diagnosis, reflection and inquiry within her therapeutic practice. They enabled her to identify relationships and possible causes of illness, from which she developed paths toward healing, grounded in her understanding of the human being as an integrated whole of body, mind and spirit. The drawings were therefore both the outcome of Kunz's research and an essential component of her healing practice.

Today, her legacy is preserved by the Emma Kunz Foundation and the Emma Kunz Center in Würenlos, Switzerland. The Foundation houses the largest collection of her work and supports ongoing research into her practice, while the Emma Kunz Center offers a space to engage with her work, which is presented in its museum. In 1953, Kunz self-published two illustrated books that expressed her desire to share her work, though she never had a chance to do so. Since the 1970s, Kunz's work has been the subject of major institutional exhibitions internationally, with a renewed attention to her practice in recent decades, including '3xAbstraction,' at The Drawing Center, New York NY (2005), where her work was presented alongside Hilma af Klint and Agnes Martin; 'Weltempfänger: Georgiana Houghton – Hilma af Klint – Emma Kunz' at Lenbachhaus, Munich, Germany (2018); 'Emma Kunz: Visionary Drawings' at Serpentine Galleries, London, UK (2019), the first major UK solo exhibition of her work; 'Emma Kunz: Visionary Drawings' at Muzeum Susch, Susch, Switzerland (2019), further underscoring the enduring relevance of her practice; and 'Emma Kunz Cosmos' at Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2021).

Hauser & Wirth Learning. The press release ends with the learning programme: an educators' evening, school and university visits, the Arthaus youth group, a creative careers event, the 2026 Spike Island Engagement Fellow, and a month-long filmmaker residency with The Forgotten Her Story, "culminat[ing] in the production of a film inspired by Kunz's work and enduring legacy".

Captions. Emma Kunz in the garden at Waldstatt with sunflowers and marigolds, 1952–1953, photo Werner Schoch, Staatsarchiv Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Untitled (Work No. 040), undated, pencil and oil crayon on brown graph paper. Untitled (Work No. 333), undated, colored pencil and oil crayon on blue graph paper. Untitled (Work No. 101), undated, pencil, colored pencil, and oil crayon on light brown graph paper mounted on fabric. Polarised marigold from Emma Kunz's garden, Waldstatt, c. 1958, photo Werner Schoch, Staatsarchiv Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Untitled (Work No. 107), undated, coloured pencil and oil crayon on brown graph paper mounted on fabric. Works courtesy Emma Kunz Centre and Hauser & Wirth, © Emma Kunz Foundation.

Works shown on the exhibition page. Untitled (Work No. 009), (Work No. 012), (Work No. 040), (Work No. 045), (Work No. 101), (Work No. 107), (Work No. 190), (Work No. 285), (Work No. 289), (Work No. 297), (Work No. 457), (Work No. 520), all "Undated". The page also shows Werner Schoch's photograph of Kunz in her studio, Waldstatt, 1952–1953.

Learning notes

About Emma Kunz

Emma Kunz (1892 – 1963) was a Swiss artist, researcher, poet and healer whose intricate geometric drawings explore the relationship between nature, energy fields and human consciousness. Kunz considered herself first and foremost a researcher, using her drawings to investigate the underlying principles she believed governed people, nature and the wider world. Produced using graph paper, pencil, oil crayon and a pendulum-guided method, the drawings served as tools for diagnosis, reflection and inquiry within her therapeutic practice. Today, the practitioners' legacy is preserved by the Emma Kunz Foundation and the Emma Kunz Center in Würenlos, Switzerland. The Foundation houses the largest collection of her work and supports ongoing research into her cultural, intellectual and spiritual practice. In 1953, Kunz self-published two illustrated books that expressed a desire to share her work. While we now know that her artworks encode immeasurable knowledge, given the context of her time, they were never exhibited during her lifetime.

Since the 1970s, Kunz's work has been the subject of major institutional exhibitions internationally, with a renewed attention to her practice, along with fellow pioneering female visionaries. Recent exhibitions have included '3xAbstraction,' The Drawing Center, New York NY (2005), where her work was presented alongside Hilma af Klint and Agnes Martin; 'Emma Kunz: Visionary Drawings,' Serpentine Galleries, London, UK (2019), the first major UK solo exhibition of her work; and 'Emma Kunz Cosmos,' Aargauer Kunsthaus, Aarau, Switzerland (2021). These exhibitions, amongst others, each highlight her contemporary relevance.

What does her work look like and how did she make her work?

Drawing. From 1938, Emma Kunz created large-scale geometric drawings on graph paper. She described her creative work as 'Shape and form expressed as measurement, rhythm, symbol and transformation of figure and principle'. The drawings are thought to offer one of the most direct ways of experiencing Kunz's personality and ideas. Despite beginning to create these works later in life, after years of working as a healer and naturopath in Switzerland, Kunz's interest in this process can be traced to her early school years.

'My drawings are designed for the 21st Century. They also convey composition and form as dimension, rhythm, symbol and transformation of numbers and principles.'—Emma Kunz

Using a pendulum-guided technique known as radiesthesia, Kunz worked on graph paper using a pendulum, ruler, compass, pencil, colored pencil and oil crayon. Standing before the sheet and concentrating on a question, she allowed the movements of the pendulum to indicate points, which she marked in pencil. She then used the pendulum to guide connections between these points, developing the composition through line and color and, in her understanding, recording an energetic force on paper.

Kunz created more than 400 geometric compositions, often developed through periods of concentrated observation lasting over a day. Characterized by intricate structures that are both highly precise and subtly irregular, the works reveal a visual language shaped by repetition and ritual. The drawings allowed Kunz to ask social, political and existential questions, while using art as a therapeutic tool to source solutions.

Scale, color and pattern. Emma Kunz's works vary in scale and chromatic intensity. Having worked in a knitting factory in her twenties, she possessed a natural affinity for grids, patterns and repetition. In her artworks, each color and shape held a precise meaning that mapped her understanding of the world.

Created on a flat surface, the works were made, observed and encountered from multiple viewpoints. Their extraordinary complexity and symmetry are especially apparent when viewed in close proximity. She saw these as spaces you could walk into, images to be unfolded or collapsed back down again, multilayered in their construction.

Rather than representing the visible world, Kunz's drawings offered a means of exploring and expressing underlying patterns and relationships that shaped both her research and therapeutic practice. The final work Kunz completed before her death in 1963, depicts a transcendental portal illuminated in yellow, a color she regularly used in the final stages of a drawing to signal its completion.

What are the main themes in Emma Kunz's work?

Natural and supernatural healing. Emma Kunz's work emerged from the landscape and healing traditions of rural Switzerland. As a child she attended the local primary school but had no further formal education or artistic training. Drawn to unusual phenomena, she developed a profound interest in healing and the natural world.

By adolescence, Kunz is thought to have lost several close relatives, including siblings who died in childhood. By age 18, she began to use telepathic abilities and a divining pendulum to investigate people, nature and unseen forces.

Kunz's sister was an important influence, introducing her to herbalism and the plant-based practice of phytotherapy. Kunz later implemented naturopathic approaches into her healing practice, conducting experiments in her extensive gardens to produce herbal remedies she prescribed via her drawings. In the early 1940s she discovers the stone AION A, which begins a new chapter of her explorations between minerals, natural environments and healing.

'May this place of strength become a meeting place where cultural, spiritual and healing accomplishments come together.'—Emma Kunz

Mathematics and the pentagram. Emma Kunz was also known as Penta, a name that reflected her interest in numbers, vectors and energetic forces. A pentagram is a five-pointed star drawn in a single continuous line; offering a powerful symbol of directional movement echoed in the motion of a pendulum, while its five points represent the four elements of fire, water, air and earth, united by spirit. As Penta, Kunz saw herself as a conduit, interpreting and directing forces in search of equilibrium. She understood even numbers as feminine and connected to the 'unlimited cosmos,' and odd numbers as masculine, 'an active force effecting order'. Their interaction of these two energies brought expansion and order into balance, expressed through the symmetry and geometry of her drawings.

Science and new technologies. In 1953, Kunz conducted a pivotal 'Polarized Calendula Bloom' experiment in her medicinal garden, bridging the gap between creative expression, mathematics and scientific inquiry. Creating a model of the desired outcome using copper wire and a central calendula flower, she formed a visual mental and physical vison of what she was aiming to achieve. Using a pendulum and the scientific values of 'polarization,' she believed this could influence the plants' growth and generate additional blooms according to a numerical sequence.

The experiment was a progressive move to create new radial forms, taking place in parallel with the discovery of radio waves, x-rays and photographic developments in the 19th and early 20th Centuries. More broadly, within her drawings, 'Work No. 020,' is famed for predicting the development of a world destroying weapon, ahead of atomic and nuclear bomb testing.

Captions. Emma Kunz in her studio, Waldstatt, Switzerland, 1952 – 1953, photo Werner Schoch, Staatsarchiv Appenzell Ausserrhoden. Untitled (Work No. 285), (Work No. 040), (Work No. 012) and (Work No. 107), all undated, © Emma Kunz Foundation, courtesy Emma Kunz Center.

Glossary (shortened)

AION A. A natural Swiss healing stone powder discovered in 1941 – 1942 by Emma Kunz in the Roman Quarry in Würenlos, Switzerland. The name derives from the Greek word aion, meaning 'without limitation'.

Divining pendulum. A weighted object on a chain or cord that swings in response to questions asked to seek spiritual guidance.

Radiesthesia. The practice or claimed ability to detect hidden energy fields, radiations or vibrations using handheld tools such as a pendulum, a dowsing rod or a divining rod.

Additional information. The notes list Emma Kunz, The Polarized Calendula Blooms, Hildegard Press.