Bottrop square

Bottrop, Museum Quadrat, May 2005

Bottrop, Museum Square, to the side

The square is a museum center in the city garden of Bottrop , which was first expanded as a local history museum and a little later with the collection of the Bottrop-born artist Josef Albers and opened in its current form on June 25, 1983 as the "Josef Albers Museum Quadrat".

Development history

The architect of the Quadrat is the Bottrop city master builder and former senior building director Bernhard Küppers . From the beginning, the museum was conceived as a square and thus intended as a homage to the Bauhaus teacher and visual artist Josef Albers, who u. a. was intensely concerned with the perception of colors on the basis of squares. It was opened as a local history museum on September 4, 1976 and at that time also contained some pictures and graphics by Josef Albers, who had become an honorary citizen of the city in 1970. Before the museum opened, Josef Albers died in America in March 1976. His wife Anni donated more than 300 works (85 paintings, 250 graphics) to the museum in 1979, so that it was soon decided to expand the museum. This is how today's shape of the strictly square art spaces made of glass and steel was created, which blend in with the nature of the city garden in a harmonious and at the same time richly contrasting manner and are “framed” by metal sculptures.

The name square is firstly related to Albers' most famous series of pictures “Hommage to the Square”, secondly to the floor plan of the building and thirdly to the four individual museums that make up the entire museum: in addition to the Josef Albers Museum, these are the museum for Prehistory and local history , in which prehistoric finds are vividly shown, as well as the studio gallery and the modern gallery , in which regularly changing exhibitions of international artists take place, as well as a media center for concerts, readings and other events.

The inauguration of a spacious new building is planned for autumn 2020. The new part of the building is being built according to plans by Gigon Guyer Architects , Zurich, and will be connected to the Josef Albers Museum by a bridge.

Park view
Park exhibits
Transition to the new part
Small exhibits in the foyer

Mammoth in the ice age hall

Modern gallery

Josef Albers Museum

The permanent exhibition in the "back square", accessible via an architecturally interesting bridge made of metal and glass, is the world's largest Albers collection by the honorary citizen of Bottrop. It includes an important collection of works by the Bauhaus artist , from early Expressionist works, self-portraits, landscape depictions, glass work, Formica engravings to “Homage to the Square”, in which he dealt with the phenomenon of color. In 2013, thanks to foundation funds, the state of North Rhine-Westphalia and private donations, seven paintings by Josef Albers that were inspired by his trips to Mexico were purchased. In 2015 the museum acquired 27 photomontages by Josef Albers from the 1930s to 1950s with funding.

Prehistory and local history

The older part of the “square”, a listed old villa, houses collections on the natural and settlement history of the region, local history (local history museum), a mining-related mineral collection and the ice age hall . This collection with exhibits of rare Ice Age animals and a collection of tools from the time of the Neanderthals is one of the most important in Europe. The focus is on an imposing mammoth skeleton . Many of the exhibits were found during construction work during the industrial settlement of the Ruhr area , for example during the construction of roads, dams, canals or shafts. From 2011 to 2013, this museum area was completely refurbished for a total of 500,000 euros from municipal funds and funds from the economic stimulus package II , including funds from the North Rhine-Westphalia Foundation for Nature Conservation, Heritage and Cultural Preservation in the amount of 125,000 euros. With a donation from the RAG Foundation of 150,000 euros, the second construction phase for the renovation of the museum can be completed from 2013, which includes the interior design. The natural history and thus the geological development from the Carboniferous Age to the post-industrial morphology of the present is then presented on around 200 square meters on the ground floor of the villa. The upper floor is then dedicated to the historical urban development from prehistory and early history (focus on the urn grave field on the Westring) through the Middle Ages with important manor houses to industrialization and modern city history.

Modern gallery

The presentation of constructive-concrete art is part of the main program of the museum. The modern gallery has made a name for itself with exhibitions by Max Bill , Richard Paul Lohse and Günther Uecker . Modern classics are also presented at regular intervals, such as works by Pablo Picasso , Paul Klee , Marc Chagall , Oskar Kokoschka and Emil Nolde , as well as artistic photography. Once a year there is also an exhibition with works by Bottrop artists.

Sculpture park

The freely accessible Sculpture Park Quadrat Bottrop is located around the museum building in Bottrop's city garden . It exhibits sculptures by Max Bill , Walter Dexel , Hermann Glöckner , Friedrich Gräsel , Douglas Abdell , Erwin Heerich , Ernst Hermanns , Donald Judd , Norbert Kricke , Marcello Morandini , Hans Steinbrenner and Bernar Venet , among others .

Special exhibitions

2020: Bernhard Fuchs . Mill
2020: Laurenz Berges . 4100 Duisburg. The last century
2019/20: 44th annual exhibition of Bottrop artists. Painting and graphics, sculpture and photography. Solo exhibition: Maike Dähn. Serial junkie
2019: Ulrich Erben . Establishing the unlimited
2019: Michael Wolf . Bottrop-Ebel 76
2018/19: 43rd annual exhibition of Bottrop artists. Painting and graphics, sculpture and photography. André Kirschbaum solo exhibition. Perpetual motion machine.
2018/19: Bernhard Fuchs . Justin Matherly. Tobias Pils - photography. Sculpture. Painting.
2018 in the Villa Hügel (Essen) : interaction. josef albers
2018: Bernd and Hilla Becher . Mines , part of the Art & Coal project of the RuhrKunstMuseen
2018: Jonas Weichsel. Course
2017/18: 42nd annual exhibition of Bottrop artists. Painting and graphics, sculpture and photography. Solo exhibition Karina. LOVE
2017/18: Axel Hut . Early work
2017: Tobias Pils. Untitled (Room) & Marfa Paintings
2017: Claus Goedicke . Things. Photographs 2007-2015
2016: Jerry Zeniuk . How to paint
2016: Hubert Kiecol . WhiteGlassBlackRed
2016: Andreas Karl Schulze . B OT BO TBO T
2016: Miles Coolidge . Photographs and Chemical Pictures
2015/16: Walker Evans . Depth of field. The retrospective
2015: Sol LeWitt . Wall Drawing 1176. For Josef Albers. Seven Basic Colors And All Their Combinations. In A Square Within A Square
2015: Ricardo Saro . Calle de Madrid. painting
2014/2015: Wade Guyton . To the project "25/25/25" in the Josef Albers Museum
2014: Fred Sandback . Drawings and sculptures
2014: Bernhard Fuchs. Groves
2014: Josef Albers. First and Last. Homage to the Square 1950-1976
2013/14: art as experience. Josef Albers as a teacher - the painter and his students
2013: Robert Adams : The Place We Live. Retrospective of the photographic work
2013: Kurt Kocherscheidt . In the flow of images. painting
2012: Kazuo Katase . present
2012: Ian McKeever. Hartgrove. Painting and photography
2012: Simone Nieweg . Nature of people. Landscape photography
2011/12: Gotthard Graubner . Conversation with Josef Albers
2011: Yuji Takeoka. Museo
2011: painting on paper. Josef Albers in America
2010/11: last pictures. Ad Reinhardt
2010: Alexej von Jawlensky and Josef Albers. Colour. Abstraction. series
2010: Bernd and Hilla Becher . Mines and smelters - industrial landscapes
2009: Michael Venezia . Night becomes day - painting
2009: Josef Albers. Color Relationships - Studies and Painting on Paper 1940-1960. Acquisition for the collection of the Josef Albers Museum
2009: Raimund Girke . Color and light - painting from five decades
2009: Bernhard Fuchs. Streets and paths
2009: John Szarkowski . Photographs
2008: color, material, space. Donald Judd and Josef Albers
2008: Judith Joy Ross . Living With War. Portraits 1983-2007
2007/2008: James Bishop. Canvas and paper
2007: Klaus Staudt . American drawings
2007: Pia Fries . Painting 1990–2007
2007: Joachim Brohm . Dysentery
2007: Anni and Josef Albers. Encounter with Latin America
2006/2007: Anton Stankowski . Aspects of the complete works
2006: Globus Dei. The ball and the art
2006: Helmut Dorner . Painting 1988–2005
2006: Sabine Funke . Painting. Sculpture. A room for Luis Barragán.
2005: Sol LeWitt . Seven Basic Colors And All Their Combinations In A Square Within A Square. Wall drawing for Josef Albers
2005: Carol Huebner Venezia. Boxer's photographs from New York and Italy
2005: Ernst Hermanns . Sculptures
2005: Giorgio Morandi . landscape
2005: Arno Schmidt . Four times four - photographs from Bargfeld
2004/2005: Kimber Smith . Painting 1956–1980
2004: Ulrich Rückriem in the Albers Museum
2004: Nicholas Nixon . The Brown Sisters
2004: Jan Jedlicka . Maremma 1980-2001
2004: Agnes Martin . The Islands
2004: Albers in Bottrop. The collection in a new form.
2004: Robert Adams. The New West
2003/2004: James Ensor . Vision and turmoil
2003: Leo Erb . A life in white
2003: Judith Joy Ross . Portraits in America
2003: Antonio Calderara . Homage for the 100th birthday
2003: Rolf Nolden . Priorities. Sculptures and drawings
2002: Francisco de Goya . The graphic cycles
2002: Klaus Staudt . Retrospective 1957–2002
2002: Miyoshi Kazuyoshi . World Heritage Site in Japan
2002: Alfred Erhardt . Photographs
2002: Ben Willikens . Places and spaces of modernity
2002: Georg Tappert . Photographic moments of a painter
2002: Light Pages
1986: Raimund Girke . Painting 1956–1986
1986: Hans Steinbrenner . Sculptures 1982–1985

Awards

In November 2006, the German section of the International Association of Art Critics (AICA) selected the Josef Albers Museum Quadrat as “ Museum of the Year 2006”. The jury praised the house for the “intelligent exhibition and collection program that has been consistently pursued for over 30 years, independent of the fashionable tendencies of the art market”.

The combination of local history museum and modern art as well as free entry to the permanent exhibitions are extraordinary.

management

The founding director Ulrich Schumacher, son of the important informal painter Emil Schumacher , was followed on March 1, 2003 by Heinz Liesbrock from Detmold, who has managed the museum to this day (2019).