Küppersmühle Museum for Modern Art

Küppersmühle and Werhahnmühle at the inner harbor at night (2014)

Museum Küppersmühle (2009)

Küppersmühle Silos (2006)

The MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art is an art museum in Duisburg . The operator is the Foundation for Art and Culture eV in Bonn. Walter Smerling has been the director since 1999 .

Mill building

The first building at this point was built in 1860 when a mill was founded. In 1908 it was replaced by a three-wing, now seven-story building. In 1912 it was expanded to include an annex to the west with a free-standing boiler house and chimney. In 1934, the 42.75 meter high steel silos with gray, tubular chambers were added on the eastern side. When the mill merged with Küpperswerke in Homberg in 1969, it got its current name. In 1972 it was shut down; but a citizens' initiative ensured that the building, which was in danger of being demolished, was preserved. In addition to the museum, there are offices and a restaurant in the western part and in the boiler house.

museum

The museum was opened in 1999 with around 3600 m² of exhibition space and is located in a former granary at the inner harbor of Duisburg . It was rebuilt according to plans by the Basel architects Herzog & de Meuron . The initiator of the museum project was the Duisburg art collector Hans Grothe (1930–2019). Grothes collection comprised over 800 works by more than 40 German artists. Since the takeover by the Darmstadt collector couple Sylvia and Ulrich Ströher , the number of exhibits and the artists represented has increased considerably. Overall, it is one of the most extensive collections of German post-war art, so visitors can look forward to changing works and groups of works by the most influential German artists from the 1950s to the present day.

Many of the collection artists are among the most important not only in Germany but also internationally, including works by Hanne Darboven , Georg Baselitz , Abraham David Christian , KO Götz , Candida Höfer , Gerhard Hoehme , Jörg Immendorff , Anselm Kiefer , Imi Knoebel , Markus Lüpertz , AR Penck , Sigmar Polke , Gerhard Richter , Bernard Schultze , Fred Thieler and Rosemarie Trockel .

In addition to the presentation of the permanent collection, up to four temporary exhibitions are added annually: retrospectives by renowned artists, thematic group exhibitions, presentations of current developments by individual artists or the art scene of a country. The exhibition series “Akademos” presents the work of the professors of the Düsseldorf Art Academy and the nationwide sponsorship competition “Young People Interpret Art / Deutsche Bank Foundation Youth Art Prize” takes place every year.

In 2007 works by the German-Turkish artist Mehmet Güler were shown. In 2011 the museum hosted an exhibition of sculptures by the British sculptor Tony Cragg , which was taken over from the Louvre . In 2015 the museum was part of the large exhibition China 8 - Contemporary Art from China on the Rhine and Ruhr, which was presented in a total of 9 museums.

expansion

Construction of the extension cube
(status: January 2, 2011)

In November 2008, the operator Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur eV Bonn decided in favor of the renovation plans of the architects Herzog & de Meuron , which had already been active to date . They proposed a concept similar to the Elbphilharmonie : Afterwards, a cube is placed on the tubes of the steel silo, apparently floating. 22 new rooms will be created on 2 floors with around 2,000 m² of exhibition space. Construction began in 2009 and should be completed by the end of 2011. The estimated 30 million euros construction costs will be raised by donations from sponsors ( Evonik Industries , the collector couple Sylvia and Ulrich Ströher and unnamed donors) and by the sponsoring association. Ever since Evonik's involvement became known, the middle letter in the museum's logo (MKM) is no longer red, but deep purple ( the sponsor's CI color).

In June 2011, a construction freeze for the extension was imposed because the steel frame of the extension cuboid was manufactured with considerable construction defects . The responsible construction companies are insolvent , the steel structure a total loss . The municipal housing association Gebag is already in financial difficulties due to the project, which has now cost € 34 million. The steel construction turned out to be irreparable and should be melted down in order to save at least the value of the material. The date of completion is open; it is unclear whether the extension will be realized at all. The sponsor Sylvia Ströher made the funding for the project dependent on a realistic cost calculation. Work on scrapping the steel frame has now started.

On December 17, 2014, it became known that the collector couple Sylvia and Ulrich Ströher had created the necessary conditions by founding the MKM Foundation and had commissioned the Swiss architects Herzog & de Meuron to plan an extension. At the beginning of September 2016, construction work began on the extension of the MKM Museum Küppersmühle for Modern Art in Duisburg, the laying of the foundation stone is planned for spring 2017 and the extension to be completed in 2019. The core of the designs is a four-storey extension that connects to the historic silos with the MKM headquarters. This increases the exhibition area by around 2,500 square meters. The Ströher collection should be visible in all its dimensions in the expanded space. It includes around 1,500 works of German art, starting from the 1950s to the present day. The new extension extends the MKM at ground level in the direction of the motorway. The silo wing, which will be accessible to visitors for the first time, will play a central role in the future. A viewing platform is also planned on the silos.