Icon Museum Recklinghausen

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The Icon Museum in Recklinghausen was founded in 1956 and is the most important of its kind in Western Europe. The collection is the largest outside the Orthodox world .

The Icon Museum in the old town

founding

In January and February 1955 an exhibition with the title “Icons from important private collections and monasteries ” took place in the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen . The retrospective with icons from West German private collections met with great interest. There had only been two icon exhibitions in Germany before: one in Munich in 1954; the other in Hanover in 1952 (under the direction of Heinrich Wendt ). The then head of the Recklinghausen art gallery, Franz Große-Perdekamp, was interested in bringing the exhibition to Recklinghausen. However, this project was never realized. The generally positive response to the exhibition from 1955, which was realized later, made the city aware and the desire crystallized to keep the icons permanently in Recklinghausen. Thomas Grochowiak was head of the art gallery at the time. He succeeded in purchasing 73 icons from the collections of Heinrich Wendt and Martin Winkler in order to lay the foundation for a museum. The opening ceremony of the museum took place on July 21, 1956.

building

The museum is located in the so-called tower school in Recklinghausen, directly opposite the provost church of St. Peter on the church square. The building was erected in 1795/1798 instead of a half-timbered building and was an elementary school for boys until 1895. From 1927 to 1935 it housed the Vestische Museum for regional history, and the NSDAP was based there until 1945. Shortly after the war, the Aurel Bongers publishing house moved into the building. The Icon Museum has been located there since 1956. The house has been a listed building since 1983 . After a year and a half of renovation work, it was reopened in June 2012.

collection

Glance into the Coptic Collection

The collection is the largest in the Western Hemisphere. Over 3,500 icons, embroidery, miniatures and wood and metalwork can be seen in the museum. The countries of origin are Russia , Greece , Ethiopia and the Balkans. Also worth mentioning is the Coptic collection, which documents the transition from pagan late antiquity to early Christianity. It represents the diversity of art in Egypt, beginning in the 1st century through the early Middle Ages.

management

Heinz Skrobucha was the curator from 1956 to 1982 . Eva Haustein-Bartsch has been custodian since 1983 . Lutz Rickelt has been the director since 2018.

EIKON.eV

Two years after it was founded, the EIKON.eV Society of Friends of Icon Art was founded in February 1958 . The association was founded under Thomas Grochowiak, Lothar Mikus and Heinz Skrobucha and set itself the task of organizing lectures, exhibitions and events, bringing together people interested in icons and promoting exchange and studies.

Exhibitions

A long series of exhibitions were held in the museum.

  • Bulgarian icons, 1985
  • Church treasures of the Christian East and metal icons, March 9 - April 13, 1986
  • 1000 years of the Orthodox Church in Rus' 988–1988. Russian Saints in Icons, November 20, 1988 - January 15, 1989
  • Romanian reverse glass icons from Transylvania, March 8 - May 3, 1992
  • Icons on paper. Print from Mount Athos, March 14th - April 25th 1993
  • Icons. A foundation for the Icon Museum Recklinghausen, September 3 - October 22, 1995
  • Russian and Greek gold embroidery from the collection of the Icon Museum in Recklinghausen, September 3 - October 22, 1995
  • Russian Easter Eggs, March 29 - May 12, 1996
  • Church festivals in Northern Greece. Photographs by Giorgios Katsangelos, December 7, 1997 - January 18, 1998
  • Greek icons. Emilios Velimezis Collection, July 12 - November 1, 1998
  • "From the dark to the light". Icons from the depot of the Icon Museum Recklinghausen, November 28, 1999 - January 9, 2000
  • Our Lady icons, December 17, 2000 - March 18, 2001
  • Angel icons from the Icon Museum Recklinghausen and from private collections, March 17 - May 20, 2002
  • “Not just fell from the sky ...” Purchases and donations for the Icon Museum Recklinghausen since 1983, November 28, 2004 - January 30, 2005
  • Wooden churches in the Carpathian Mountains. Architectural photos by Siegfried von Quast, May 21 - July 9, 2006
  • Beyond Icons, Ikonen - Jawlensky - Jachens, August 13th - October 8th, 2006
  • Icons on postage stamps (as part of the exhibition "Recklinghausen celebrates" - International Postage Stamp Show), October 6th - 27th, 2006
  • Gate of Heaven. 50 years of EIKON eV Icons from the collections of the members of the Friends of the Icon Museum Recklinghausen, December 7, 2008 to February 8, 2009.
  • Nicholas. A saint just in case. Life. Legends. Icons , October 19, 2013 - February 23, 2014, catalog.
  • Welcome! New additions to the Icon Museum Recklinghausen since 2011 , April 5, 2014 - January 4, 2015
  • Miracle of light. Bulgarian icons from Varna , March 22nd - June 14th, 2015
  • "My idol, my icon". Work by pupils of the Montessori reform school Dorsten , March 18 - May 8, 2016
  • Of dragon fighters and other heroes. Warrior saints on icons , October 2, 2016 - February 12, 2017
  • 1000 years of Recklinghausen. 1000 icons. Petrus and Paulus - the city patrons of Recklinghausen , June 30th - September 24th 2017
  • The colors of the sky. 15 Cretan icons from a European private collection , October 22, 2017 - March 25, 2018
  • Holy metal. Russian metal icons from the estate of Gustav and Rose-Marie Wörner , since November 11, 2018
  • White - a spiritual color , December 2, 2018 - January 6, 2019
  • The mandylion. Archetype and image. With works by Robert Hehlke (Berlin) , August 18 - October 6, 2019
  • The touch of eternity. Evidence of Russian Orthodox culture in the Recklinghausen Icon Museum. Exhibition as part of the Essen cultural festival "Russia as a guest in the Ruhr area" (23-29 November 2019)
View into the Icon Museum

Meetings

  • Russian Icons - New Research
    • December 6-8, 1988
  • Icons. Restoration and scientific exploration
    • October 18-20, 1994
  • Greek Icons - Greek Icons
    • 29. / 30. September 1998
  • Crete - art and culture
    • October 15, 2006

literature

  • Eva Haustein-Bartsch: The icon collectors Dr. Heinrich Wendt and Prof. Dr. Martin Winkler and the establishment of the Icon Museum. Icon Museum Recklinghausen, Recklinghausen 2007, ISBN 978-3-939753-03-2 .
  • 50 years of the Recklinghausen Icon Museum. Icon Museum Recklinghausen and EIKON eV, Recklinghausen 2008, ISBN 978-3-929040-96-8 .

Web links

Commons : Ikonen-Museum Recklinghausen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Archives , website of the house


Coordinates: 51 ° 36 '55.4 "  N , 7 ° 11' 49.9"  E