Art Museum Gelsenkirchen

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The Art Museum Gelsenkirchen in the Buer district consists of a historic old building (right) and a new building by the architect Albrecht Egon Wittig from 1984.
Listed old villa at Horster Strasse 7, the museum's main building, in August 2016

The Art Museum Gelsenkirchen is a municipal museum in Gelsenkirchen-Buer . In addition to the art of the first half of the 20th century, an extensive collection of kinetic art forms the focus of the house. For a long time the house was simply called the “Städtisches Museum”. On August 27, 2008, the culture committee of the city of Gelsenkirchen decided to rename it to "Art Museum Gelsenkirchen". Admission is free.

history

precursor

The first municipal museum in Gelsenkirchen, the cultural museum for applied arts and antiquities , was located on the first floor of the Georgshaus on Ahstrasse, designed by Josef Franke . The building was badly damaged in World War II and later demolished.

founding

In 1950 the Gelsenkirchen City Museum was re-established. The first museum director, Bernd Lasch , had a relatively high purchase budget for the time, with which a collection was systematically created that represents a cross-section of art developments from the 19th century. The collection was shown in full for the first time from 1957 in a Wilhelminian style villa on Horster Straße. After Lasch left in 1966, the purchasing activity was largely stopped for financial reasons and the collection was put into storage. In 1971 a new museum director was appointed and collecting activities were resumed on a modest scale. However, the collection remained in the magazine.

New museum building

At the beginning of the 1980s, a citizens' initiative was formed, including the city's cultural department head Peter Rose , which, with cautious steps, laid the foundations for the construction of today's museum building. A building cost surcharge from the state of North Rhine-Westphalia finally enabled the planning to begin. The first construction phase of the museum designed by the Gelsenkirchen architect Albrecht Egon Wittig opened in 1984. The new building is structurally connected to the old villa, which is now used for temporary exhibitions . The extension planned by Wittig has not yet been implemented.

Museum today

In addition to the permanent exhibition, temporary exhibitions are shown in the Alte Villa , some of which are realized by the museum itself and some by the Gelsenkirchen Art Association . Recurring exhibitions are the annual shows of Gelsenkirchen artists, as well as the exhibitions of young artists organized in cooperation with the Münster Art Academy . On the occasion of Ruhr.2010 , the museum participates in the RuhrKunstMuseen . The museum manager is Leane Schäfer (as of 2017).

collection

Paintings and graphics

The focus of the painting and graphic collection is on the trends of the first half of the 20th century, such as B. Impressionism , Fauvism , Expressionism (here especially the painters of the artist group “ Die Brücke ”) and Suprematism . Represented artists of this era include: Max Liebermann , Lovis Corinth , Max Ernst and László Moholy-Nagy . The art from 1945 is present with works of surrealism , constructivism , tachism and pop art up to works from more recent times. Represented artists from this era include: Andy Warhol with Cow Wallpaper , Karel Appel , Konrad Klapheck , Gerhard Richter and Victor Vasarely . The collection also includes local artists.

plastic

Elastic Cube (2000) from HD Schrader

Plastic objects can be found both in the museum and in the outdoor area, on the forecourt and in the museum garden. Represented artists include: Ewerdt Hilgemann , Wulf Kirschner , HD Schrader and Günter Tollmann .

Kinetic art

One focus of the house is the collection of kinetic art, which is one of the largest in Europe. These partly electrically operated works deal with movement, light and sound. The interest in kinetics stems not least from the fact that the artist group ZERO exhibited in Gelsenkirchen in the 1960s. The kinetics department, which was extensively renovated and redesigned in 2016, includes a. Works by: Hartmut Böhm , Leo Erb , Heinz Mack , Günther Uecker and Rolf Glasmeier .

Anton Stankowski

More recently, the museum came into possession of works by the Gelsenkirchen-born artist and communication designer Anton Stankowski . The collection, consisting primarily of series of screen prints , but also sketches and photographs, is presented in the permanent collection.

The painting “Bacchanale” by Lovis Corinth

In 1957, the city of Gelsenkirchen acquired the painting “ Bacchanale ” painted by Lovis Corinth in 1896 from the Czwiklitzer Gallery in Cologne for its museum . The Berlin entrepreneur Alfred Salomon had to have it auctioned by Rudolph Lepke's Kunst-Auctions-Haus in 1936 in order to be able to emigrate. His widow Martha Salomon received compensation for the loss of assets after the Second World War. In 2010, their heirs demanded the return of the painting as it was stolen art . In April 2016, the Advisory Commission for the Return of Cultural Assets seized as a result of Nazi persecution, especially those belonging to Jews, recommended that the painting be handed over to the heirs. The city decided to follow this recommendation.

Art theft

On August 8, 2008, three graphics were stolen from the museum in broad daylight. These were works by Emil Nolde, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Otto Mueller, which have since disappeared without a trace. As a result of this theft, which aroused great public interest, a discussion arose about the city house's budget, which had been too low for years, the lack of insurance cover and the management structure of the house. Shortly afterwards, the house was renamed the Gelsenkirchen Art Museum .

gallery

literature

  • Kinetic Art , Städtisches Museum Gelsenkirchen, Edition Braus, 1998, ISBN 3-89466-218-2 .
  • Ruhrkunstmuseen and Ruhr2010 (Hrsg.): Ruhrkunstmuseen - The collection . Hatje Cantz, Ostfildern 2010, ISBN 978-3-7757-2617-7 .

Web links

Commons : Städtisches Museum Gelsenkirchen  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

swell

  1. The museum. Information on the website of the city of Gelsenkirchen, accessed on August 28, 2016.
  2. Video clip from the opening of the Gelsenkirchen City Museum on June 23, 1984
  3. a b Heirs receive paintings back. In: Süddeutsche Zeitung, April 30, 2016, p. 17.
  4. a b Recommendation of the Advisory Commission in the Erben Salomon case ./. City of Gelsenkirchen ( Memento of the original from May 14, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.kulturgutverluste.de
  5. Heirs register a claim to Nazi looted art , in: WAZ, Gelsenkirchen edition, November 14, 2014
  6. ^ Andreas Rossmann : Solomonisch: Gelsenkirchen restitutes paintings . In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, May 2, 2016, p. 9.
  7. ^ "Art theft - We're here in the provinces", WAZ August 8, 2008
  8. ^ "After the art theft - Now solo tip in the museum", WAZ August 13, 2008

Coordinates: 51 ° 34 ′ 37.3 "  N , 7 ° 3 ′ 14.6"  E