The Swiss magazine DU presented 42 young local artists and one female artist in 1959 under the title "The Dark Horses" and inquired about their prospects for a successful artistic career: How does an largely unknown "dark horse" - actually a racehorse newly allowed to compete - become a shooting star in the international art scene? What qualities and prerequisites are necessary for this? This study delves into such questions and examines from a contemporary perspective what conditions this generation of Swiss artists had to meet and which strategies proved favorable on the path to internationally successful artistic creation. The investigation focuses on the careers, from education to lobbying within a group to the posthumous oeuvre, as well as the artistic forms of work through which the artists were perceived by a broad audience.