Walter Art Museum

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Walter Art Museum
Art Museum Walter Augsburg.JPG
Data
place augsburg
Art
Art museum
opening 2002
Website
ISIL DE-MUS-777319

The Walter Art Museum is a privately run museum in Augsburg . It is located in the Glass Palace and shows modern and contemporary art . The owner of the collection and at the same time namesake of the museum, which opened in 2002, is the building contractor Ignaz Walter .

Premises

The architectural framework of the collection is formed by the former production building of Plant IV of the Mechanical Cotton Spinning and Weaving Mill in Augsburg ( SWA for short ), interspersed with numerous columns . Ignaz Walter bought the listed building in 1999 and then had it extensively renovated. The rooms were divided by low partition walls, which only slightly impair the original room layout. Daylight falls unhindered into the exhibition area through the large glazed windows (hence the name “Glaspalast”). The museum is spread over two floors in the building. Only original exhibits are shown on a total area of ​​around 6,000 m².

The entrance to the museum on the first floor leads through a long black tunnel in which the first hint “calm down” is written on the ceiling. After a few meters, the second hint “Relax” appears. Finally, after a few more meters, the third hint “Enjoy” comes. The visitor then walks towards a white wall with a “Polke picture”. Mainly international art and art from the former West Germany is shown on this floor. In addition, the contemporary, modern art of today's Federal Republic is presented there. One floor higher, among other things, the former Eastern Art, i.e. the Leipzig School , is presented. Almost all well-known artists from this art direction are represented there. The so-called cabinet is also set up here, in a completely different color. Exceptional works from the 19th to the beginning of the 20th century are represented here. Some regional artists, albeit with national and international quality, are shown on this floor.

In addition to the Walter Art Museum, there are two other art museums in the Glass Palace. On the one hand, there is the H2 - Center for Contemporary Art . This is supported by the city of Augsburg and regularly presents modern art there in the context of changing exhibitions. Furthermore, a branch of the Bavarian State Painting Collection , as an offshoot of the Munich Pinakothek for Modern Art, is housed in the house.

collection

The entire collection has been collected personally by Ignaz Walter since the early 1970s; the works of art are also his personal property. Walter does not collect by chance, but purposefully mainly modern and contemporary art from the middle of the 20th century. The collection presented in the art museum consists of around 1,000 works of art. There is roughly the same number of works of art in the depot.

The collection of art exhibits is divided into the following areas:

West German art

The most important artists shown in this area are: Alt, Antes, Elvira Bach, Bachem, Baselitz, Behus, Hämmert, Hartung, Hofer, Immendorff, Horst Janssen, Kaminski, Leiberg, Lüpertz, Penck, Polke, Daniel Richter, Gerhard Richter, Cornelia Schleime, Szczesny, Tadeusz, Uecker, Paul Wunderlich, room,

East German Art (Leipzig School)

The best-known East German artists are: Bisky, Ebersbach, Heisig, Hachulla, Libuda, Liebmann, Link, Mattheuer, Metzkes, Neo Rauch, Sitte, Thiele, Triegel, Tübke,

International art

Shown here: Armando, Attersee, Brauer, Buffet, Carzou, Castelli, Centeno, Christo, Dokoupil, Fernandez, Flora Fong, Fuchs, Generalic, Rudolf Hausner, Hrdlicka, Makina Na Kamura, Kippenberger, Kirkeby, Lackovic, Martinez, Nitsch, Perino, Procksch, Rabuzin, Arnulf Rainer, Ranucci, Rodin, Salcovic, Sidorin, Strupler, Zaslonov,

cabinet

The works of art gathered in the so-called cabinet are not part of Walter's “Contemporary Collection”. These are artists from the 19th to the mid-20th century. The following artists are shown there: Ackermann, Antes, Bauknecht, Feininger, Hartung, Heckel, Hofer, Hölzel, Kippenberger, Ernst-Ludwig Kirchner, Liebermann, Liner, Macke, Münter, Nay, Pechstein, Purmann, Rodin, Rohlfs, Schmidt-Rottluff , Schumacher, Uecker, Vasarely, Websky, Franz Winter, Zeller.

Osterwald Collection

The Gisela Franz-Osterwald Collection (December 19, 1916 - March 23, 2012) forms a separate area in the museum. Walter has made it his business to catalog and describe the currently identifiable works of art by Gisela Franz-Osterwald. So far 103 original copies have been collected.

The artist first started painting autodidactically, then quickly qualified for further training at universities. Gollwitzer at the state art academy in Stuttgart was her great teacher. She was a master class student with Salvador Dali. Gisela Franz-Osterwald worked as a freelance artist all her life. Her artistic horizon was influenced by Gollwitzer, Salvador Dali, Oskar Kokoschka, Arnulf Rainer, Gabriele Münter. In her artistic activity she mastered almost all the techniques of painting. Her creative work in the field of art moved “between dream and reality”. Her portraits, as well as her landscapes, are always dominated by the spirit of reality, mixed with a lot of imagination. Her materials were canvas, oil, tempera, acrylic paints, wax crayons, pen drawings and watercolor.

Egidio Costantini glass collection

The Egidio Costantini (1912–2006) glass collection is unique in the world. Only in Japan is there a somewhat smaller museum with a collection of his works. 118 original exhibits are presented to the public in the Walter Art Museum. The most famous Costantini work "altare maggiore" is in the neighboring atrium palace. 70 other unique items are also presented there.

Egidio Costantini is considered the greatest glass artist in glass art history. In 1950 he founded the glass artists association “Centro Studi Pittori nell'Arte del Vetro” with a group of Venetian artists. In 1953 he started his own glass art workshop, the "Fucina degli Angeli", and in the following years worked for his daily bread. From 1961, with the help of Peggy Guggenheim , Costantini advanced to become the world's leading glass artist in glass art. Large exhibitions in Venice, Milan, Rome and New York brought him high esteem and much fame. Costantini then worked with many great painters of his time, e. B. with Pablo Picasso, Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Oskar Kokoschka, George Braque, Jean Arp, Lucio Fontana, Paul Jenkins, Mark Tobey and many other world-famous artists.

Renovation 2013

The museum, which opened in May 2002, was rebuilt and completely redesigned at the end of 2013, and the exhibition area on the 2nd floor was halved in the process. The so-called cabinet, which is used to accommodate “Modern Art”, is new. These exhibits date from the 19th and early 20th centuries. These are special exhibits of this art movement that are not part of Walter's original collector's concept. A new darkroom for illuminated works of art by the glass artist Egidio Costantini was created next to the cabinet. Some of the 117 original copies by this artist have meanwhile been moved to the atrium palace opposite, because there is enough space and at the same time the right ambience is available.

In addition to the room layout, the hanging of the exhibits has also been revised. In contrast to large museums (such as the Guggenheim Museum in New York City), the decision was made to hang them in a clear manner, which is both artist-related and arranged according to creative periods. This brings the viewer closer not only to the individual work of art, but also to the artist himself and his other artistic work.

The new exhibition shows the tension between former German Eastern art, i.e. the GDR and the Leipzig School, on the one hand, and German Western art, i.e. the FRG, on the other, which is unique in Germany . Almost all important artists and their works of art are presented from both directions.

Walter personally acquired many works of art in the last 10 years. The new acquisitions for the renovation were also made as part of its overall concept. All newly acquired works of art complement the existing ones and continue to round off the collection to form a comprehensive range of international art. In addition to the measures described above, a large number of previously shown works of art were removed and temporarily stored in the depot.

The works of the internationally acclaimed artist Anselm Kiefer are also presented in a clear context. The Walter Art Museum has the largest private pine collection in Germany. A total of 13 works by Kiefer are currently on display. These include the two large sculptures from the series “Women of Antiquity”. Also shown are: “Pittsburgh” - “St. John's Night” - “Eva” - “Women of Antiquity” - “The lost letter” - “The letters” - “Hermannsschlacht” - “Jacob's fight” - “Leonardo Pisano I” - “Leonardo Pisano II "-" Karfunkelfee ".

Gallery Noah

Logo of the Noah Gallery

The Noah Gallery is a gallery for contemporary art in the Glaspalast, which was established in 2002 as part of the so-called “ Center for Modern Art ” in the Glaspalast. The gallery is on the same floor as the Walter Art Museum. Nicole Walter-Höret (* 1971) was one of the managing directors of Galerie Noah GmbH until 2007. Walter-Höret is the daughter of Ignaz Walter, who joined the GmbH in 2000 as a silent partner . Thomas Höret, Ignaz Walter's son-in-law and director of Walter Beteiligungen und Immobilien AG, is still director of Galerie Noah GmbH.

The gallery regularly serves as an exhibition space for solo exhibitions of life's work or certain creative periods of artists. In addition, the rooms are also used as an extension area for the Walter Art Museum, if its premises are insufficient for an exhibition. Works by the following artists, among others, were on view in the Noah Gallery:

Galerie Noah was involved in several art fairs as an exhibitor, for example in 2007 at Art Moscow and in 2008 at Art Cologne .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Galerie Noah GmbH, entry in the register at the Augsburg District Court, register number HRB 17972. Announcement of February 27, 2007 about the change in management of February 26, 2007.
  2. ^ Galerie Noah GmbH, Augsburg, annual financial statements for the 2008 financial year
  3. ^ Galerie Noah: exhibitions in retrospect
  4. ↑ Manfred Engelhardt: Felix Rehfeld and Marina Schulze in the Noah Gallery . In: Augsburger Allgemeine, November 18, 2018. Retrieved April 22, 2020
  5. ↑ Media coverage of the Lüppertz exhibition
  6. ↑ Media coverage of the exhibition Brandl
  7. ↑ Media coverage of the Weinold exhibition
  8. ↑ Media coverage of the Baselitz exhibition
  9. ^ Art Moscow 2007 on kunstaspekte.de (accessed on October 26, 2011)
  10. ↑ 42nd Art Cologne 2008 on kunstaspekte.de (accessed October 26, 2011)

Coordinates: 48 ° 22 ′ 3.2 ″  N , 10 ° 55 ′ 10.7 ″  E