MEWO art gallery

The MEWO art gallery in the old main post office

The MEWO Kunsthalle is a municipal exhibition center for contemporary art and art from the 19th and 20th centuries in the Upper Swabian city of Memmingen .

history

The art gallery is located in the listed building of the former main post office at the train station. This was built in 1901 as a royal post office. The late classical office building was used as a post office until 1990. From 1990 to 1996 the district court was housed there, while the building at Hellhof was being renovated. From 1999 to 2001 it was used temporarily as a train station while the next-door station building was rebuilt.

In 2002, the Memminger Wohnungsbaugenossenschaft eG (MEWO) acquired the so-called Alte Post and renovated it for over 4 million euros. Since then, MEWO has let the city rent the building for use as an art gallery. After the renovation work, the MEWO art gallery was opened on November 25, 2005.

From 2005 to 2011 the art gallery was directed by Joseph Kiermeier-Debre . In November 2012 the art historian Axel Lapp took over the management. He pursues an exhibition concept with an increased number of shorter exhibitions.

architecture

The brick facade is structured with corner risers and house edging. A pavilion-like shed building connects to the north side . The four-wing complex is grouped on three floors around a covered atrium . The large parcel hall is located on the ground floor, while the exhibition area is divided into several small rooms on the first floor; including two rooms that were left in their original size and furnishings. On the second floor you will find the so-called graphics cabinet, the exhibition area of which has been significantly enlarged by a system of drawers.

Exhibitions

The art gallery was opened with an exhibition about the artist Josef Madlener from Memmingen- Amendingen . His - probably most famous - works with Christmas motifs were also on view every Christmas. This was followed by other exhibitions on photography, typography, graphics, drawing and sculpture.

Exhibitions since 2013:

November 22, 2014–22. February 2015: “Everything masquerade! Mardi Gras, Carnival & Mummenschanz "
October 11, 2014–1. March 2015: " Josef Madlener : Josef Madlener: 'Fliegende Blätter' and other caricatures"
October 11, 2014–6. January 2015: "Josef Madlener: The Sacred Art"
September 20–9. November 2014: “Ovid's Girls” with works by Ulli Böhmelmann, Alexandra Deutsch, Rosalyn Driscoll, Anke Eilergerhard, Laura Evans, Flora Hitzing, Michelle Lougee, Marina Schreiber , Julia Shepley, Hannah Verlin, Leslie Wilcox and Frauke Wilken
August 2–2. November 2014: "Artifacts: Images of Nature by Maximilian Moritz Prüfer and Nikola Irmer"
June 7th – 7th September 2014: "Sounds - Hear pictures, see noises: Artistic sound works by Lynne Marsh, Sonia Boyce, Störtebeker, Dominik Erhard, Astronautalis"
May 10th - May 28th September 2014: “What remains? - Memories of the First World War "
May 10th - May 28th September 2014: " Max Unold and the First World War"
May 3–25. May 2014: "Museum for All"
February 15–27. April 2014: "Gabriel Vormstein: In the World"
February 15–27. April 2014: “And me? An exhibition on the subject of mass culture "
January 27–27. April 2014: "That I could see the moon in my sleep ...: Contemporary artists from the Near and Middle East", with works by Faiza Butt, Mariam Ghani , Mona Hatoum , Simin Keramati, Rehana Mangi and Neda Razavipour
November 23, 2013–6. January 2014: "Josef Madlener: Christmas"
October 26, 2013–6. January 2014: "Thomson & Craighead: Not even the sky"
October 12, 2013–6. January 2014: "Dieter Preiß: Artist Pictures"
July 13–6. October 2013: “Explain the explanation. - On the history of the infographic "
June 15–8. September 2013: " Norbert Bisky : Special Report"
June 15–8. September 2013: "Max Unold: Portraits"
March 23–30. June 2013: "Josef Madlener: Worlds of Images"
March 23–2. June 2013: " Jens Schubert : Blackmagickparty"
March 23–2. June 2013: “Cinema and the cinematographic gaze”, with works by Friedemann Hahn , Omer Fast , Romeo Grünstelder, Emanuel Mathias, Jana Müller , Georg Parthen, Martina Sauter, John Sealey, Jason Silva, John Stezaker, Clemens von Wedemeyer and Ming Wong .

Collections

painting

Around 800 paintings and more than 2000 graphic works from the estate of the painter Josef Madlener are in the depot of the MEWO Kunsthalle. In 1997 this passed into the estate administration of the city of Memmingen. In 2008/2009, in addition to the annual Christmas exhibition, Madlener's silhouette pictures were shown in an exhibition.

The MEWO Kunsthalle owns 70 paintings and around 1,000 graphic works by the painter of the New Objectivity , Max Unold .

graphic

The third part of the MEWO Kunsthalle's depot holdings are graphics from the 18th to the 20th century. These include the collections of the graphic artist Johann Gottlieb Prestel (1739–1808), his wife Maria Katharina Prestel (1747–1794) and Wolfgang Niesner (1925–1994).

The United Scholarship Foundations Memmingen received the Prestel Collection in 2003 from the collectors Walter and Hildegard Prestel. It consists of a collection of over 150 engravings, etchings and drawings. The donors supplemented the loan at the opening of the Kunsthalle in 2005. Wolfgang Niesner's works have been on loan from his widow Friederike Niesner in the MEWO Kunsthalle since 2005, but have not yet been presented in an exhibition.