The Syz Collection

Initiated in the 1980s when Eric and Suzanne Syz were living in New York, The Syz Collection was installed in fall 2017 in Geneva—where the couple has been based since the mid-1990s—in the new SYZ Group Headquarters. Featuring 300 works by more than 100 Swiss and international artists from different generations working in different mediums, the Geneva hanging reflects the tastes of an inspired collector couple, who have been advised for the last ten years by curator and art critic Nicolas Trembley.

Having started by collecting paintings by Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, Francesco Clemente, George Condo, and Andy Warhol, the Syz have been endlessly expanding their collection, following the most renowned artists of our times (Fischli/Weiss, Wade Guyton, Cindy Sherman, Sturtevant, Wolfgang Tillmans, Rosemarie Trockel, etc.), while always paying attention to the most powerful voices of the younger generations (Valentin Carron, Roe Ethridge, Yngve Holen, Elad Lassry). Their very open approach to collecting constitutes as such a vivid testimony to the current diversity of contemporary art practices.

Edited and introduced by Nicolas Trembley, this publication offers an extensive documentation of the collection, focusing in particular on the way it is displayed at the SYZ Group Headquarters. When one enters the building and encounters its spectacular atrium, one discovers a consistent whole: the interplay of the display of the collection with its dialogue between artists, themes, generations, and mediums, and its subtle play with the ongoing history of contemporary art, paired with the interior architecture and design conceived by Suzanne Syz.

This overview is completed by a conversation with Eric and Suzanne Syz and Nicolas Trembley, and the Head of Cultural Service at “Le Temps,” Emmanuel Grandjean, as well as an interview with Nicolas and Marc Syz realized for the second edition of the publication released in 2025, after the successful first edition published in 2018.