Philippe Bodenmann studied engraving at the La Chaux-de-Fonds art school. He began collecting works by artists from Switzerland and elsewhere in the 1980s. The resulting collection reflects as much his own artistic gaze as his life journey.

He produced a number of his own paintings early in his career, exhibiting at two contemporary art biennials here at the museum. These early creative ventures gave rise to exacting expectations and a keen interest in geometric abstraction. In 2025, Philippe Bodenmann decided to entrust his entire collection to the museum – a gift reflective of his high esteem for the institution and many years of intellectual exchange and friendship.

The collection features over 200 works of art, including paintings, sculptures and engravings. It encompasses the early twentieth-century Neuchâtel school, concrete art from the Zurich school of the 1950s, international minimalist and conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s, and works by Swiss artists in Philippe’s circle of friends over recent decades.

The collection is not just important in historical and artistic terms. It holds a mirror up to the exhibitions that have shaped the Museum over the past four decades. It naturally complements the Olivier Mosset donation yet stands apart for the nature of the gaze it embodies. The former reflects the artist, the latter the aficionado who lives and breathes art, cultivating his own tastes and living cheek by jowl with the works he loves.