The collection of Ernst Bleibler (1888-1972) was donated to the state of Switzerland in the early 1970s. It was exhibited in Winterthur in 1978 and published in a separate catalogue. The assemblage mirrors the personality and the interests of the collector, Ernst Bleibler, who was an innovative technical expert and industrialist. It contains a number of works in technically complex media, like cloisonné and champlevé. Bleibler focused primarily on technical perfection, rather than on age or aesthetic criteria and was, thus, somewhat ahead of his times. This is one of the reasons why his collection found little appreciation by the art historians in the 1970s.
In the recent decades we have witnessed a growing interest in the academia both in the West and in the East in the subject of East Asian export art production. This topic is also a subject of one of the current dissertations at the KGOA. Bleibler collection is currently integrated in a number of practical courses on “Research in Swiss Museum Archives.” The past exhibition is being re-evaluated with the help of newest research materials and possible curatorial mistakes will be corrected. The objects should receive a new critical appreciation with the results that could possibly be published in a new catalogue. As a part of the course, students conduct independent research in the library in Zurich and travel to Bern to view the objects in the storage. Reports are being presented at the end of the course.
