The Comensoli Center
At the request contained in the will of the painter Mario Comensoli (1922-1993), his widow Hélène, who died in 1994, established a Foundation with the task of managing and promoting its artistic heritage.
The Comensoli Gallery in the Pfalzgasse in Zurich
The imperative of the Foundation Council was immediately to look for a place in Zurich where Mario Comensoli’s works could be permanently exhibited. On April 6, 1995, the “Galerie Comensoli” was inaugurated at number 2/4 of the Pfalzgasse in the medieval heart of the city. A selection of pictorial and graphic works from the private collection of Mario and Hélène Comensoli was presented. The exhibition was the first of 21 exhibitions that had great public success. Unfortunately, for reasons of space, it was not possible to create a storage depot at Pfalzgasse for all of the Foundation’s works, many of which were confined to a temporary headquarters in Glattbrugg, on the outskirts of Zurigo. The last exhibition at Galerie Comensoli closed on 16 March 2002.
The new Comensoli Center in the Steinfels area
A few weeks later, on 18 April 2002, the Foundation inaugurated the Comensoli Center at number 267/10 Heinrichstrasse Zurich. The venue was well suited for a series of structures that were specially created to preserve and display the works, even those of a large size, and to put into order a vast historical-biographical documentation. The public visiting the Center can therefore become acquainted with a wide selection of graphic and pictorial works and with important documents that accompany the life and work of Mario Comensoli: in short, the Center has the double functions of both a gallery and a center of studies. Between 2002 to 2018 at this meeting point for Comensoli’s friends there were two exhibitions a year with various thematic topics.
