Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen

The history of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen begins in 1960 with the purchase of 88 works by Paul Klee from the collection of Pittsburgh steel manufacturer G. David Thompson. The purchase—brokered by Basel art dealer Ernst Beyeler and overseen by then state premiere Franz Meyer—forms the nucleus of the collection, founded in 1961 under the title "Stiftung Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen". Between 1962 and his retirement in 1990, Werner Schmalenbach served as the first director of the newly founded collection. He assembled an extraordinarily high-quality collection of classical modernist artworks, thereby creating the only regional collection in Germany specializing in modern art. To begin with, the collection was housed in Jägerhof Palace. Soon after it opened, space limitations prompted plans for a new building. Announced in 1975 was a competition for its design; the winning proposal was submitted by the Danish architectural office of Dissing+Weitling. The building – which resides within architectural history at the transition from postwar modernism to postmodernism – was inaugurated on 14 March 1986 in the presence of the then German President Richard von Weizsäcker, and has served ever since as an emblem of the city. With its curved façade of polished, natural black stone, the building gives Grabbeplatz its special character. It sits on the square directly across from the Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, whose building also serves as the headquarters of the Kunstverein für die Rheinlande und Westfalen.

In 1990, Schmalenbach was succeeded as Director by Armin Zweite, formerly head of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus in Munich. While Schmalenbach had expanded the museum's holdings for the most part through the addition of masterworks of painting, it was primarily contemporary sculptures, installations, and photographs of international rank which entered the collection beginning in 1990 through the efforts of his successor. On 1 September 2009, Marion Ackermann – former director of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart – assumed artistic directorship of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. She has taken a dynamic approach to the collection, and seeks to relate contemporary art and classic modern to one another more closely. Together with Hagen Lippe-Weißenfeld, who joined the team on 1 November 2008 as Director of Finance and Business Affairs, Ackermann serves on the Chairmanship of the Foundation.

Schmela Haus

On 12 November 2009, the Kunstsammlung inaugurated the former home of the Galerie Schmela, located at Mutter-Ey-Straße 3 in Düsseldorf-Altstadt, as a venue for exhibitions, discussions and other activities.

After remaining closed for more than two years during comprehensive renovations and the erection of an extension building, the K20 at Grabbeplatz resumed operations as an exhibition venue in July 2010. Available now for the collection and for temporary exhibitions is a generous surface area. The first artists to exhibit there were Belgian illustrator Kris Martin and German sculptor Michael Sailstorfer, who created accessible installations for the two galleries of the new building, namely the Klee Halle and the Konrad und Gabriele Henkel Galerie, which together offer almost 2.000 m².

During the first two weeks after the reopening alone, nearly 60,000 visitors took advantage of free admission to the Kunstsammlung. The museum welcomed its 100,000th visitor on 21 October 2010. Contributing to the new and more emphatic public presence of the Kunstsammlung – which is now able to display the art collections of this federal state more comprehensively than ever before – is the large-scale mosaic mural "Hornet", composed of colorful tiles and the work of American artist Sarah Morris. With its length of 27 meters, it has become attractive landmark on the newly created Paul Klee Platz along the rear façade of the K20.

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  Logo Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen
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  Hornet by Sarah Morris, 2010, Paul-Klee-Platz, K20 Grabbeplatz
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  Reopening of the Kunstsammlung, 2010, K20 Grabbeplatz
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  Your natural yellow daylight by Olafur Eliasson, 2010, K20 Grabbeplatz

Featured on a regular basis in the venues of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen alongside presentations of the permanent collection are internationally acclaimed temporary exhibitions.

On view from 11 September 2010 to 16 January 2011 in the K20 and the Schmela Haus was the ambitious Joseph Beuys exhibition "Parallelprozesse/Parallel Processes", organized around large-scale installation works dating from all creative periods of this artist. This exhibition – the first special presentation mounted after the reopening of the Kunstsammlung am Grabbeplatz – formed part of the program of the Düsseldorf Quadriennale, and was seen by 103,000 visitors.

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner 1909, Mädchen unter Japanschirm

Franz Marc, c.1913, Drei Katzen

Joan Miró, 1919, Nu au miroir (Nude with a Mirror, Naakt met mirror)

Paul Klee, 1920, Kamel in rhythmischer Baumlandschaft

The collection encompasses a singular selection of works from the 20th and 21st centuries. Among the high points are paintings by the German Expressionists, Pablo Picasso, Wassily Kandinsky and Jackson Pollock, and installations by Joseph Beuys and Nam June Paik. Alongside these works, which have long since achieved iconic status, are additional outstanding examples of classical modernism, of American art after 1945, along with major installation works, photographs, and film and video pieces by contemporary artists. Critics have referred to the collection – whose individual works are notable for their outstanding quality – as a "secret National Gallery".[2]

The focus of the collection is classical modernism. Stylistically, the works from before 1945 range from Fauvism, Expressionism, Pittura Metafisica, and Cubism to works by members of the Blaue Reiter group, as well as Dada and Surrealism. The collection also includes 100 works by Paul Klee. In 1960, the Federal State of North Rhine-Westphalia earmarked 6 million German Marks for the purchase of 88 paintings, drawings, and color studies on paper by Klee – an ensemble which formed the nucleus of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Although the price tag seemed high at the time, it appears a rare bargain from today's perspective. The works came from a private American collection in Pittsburgh.

Among groups of works by individual artists is an ensemble of 12 by Pablo Picasso which encompasses nearly all of the major creative phases of his career. Cubism forms an important focus of the collection, with works in the style by Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Georges Braque and others.

Art after 1945 is represented primarily by circa 40 major pieces by American artists. Among these are works by Mark Rothko, Robert Rauschenberg, Andy Warhol, Donald Judd and Jackson Pollock, whose monumental Number 32 from 1950 is one of the few mural-sized drip paintings by this artist, and is regarded as a key exemplar of Abstract Expressionism. Among the four works by Robert Rauschenberg is Wager, which dates from 1957 and is one of the largest and most complex of his "combine paintings".

European postwar art is represented among others by the works of Markus Lüpertz, Per Kirkeby, Gerhard Richter, Emil Schumacher and Joseph Beuys, whose late work "Palazzo Regale", acquired in 1992, has been supplemented by a further 60 works. These were formerly owned by Düsseldorf art collector Günter Ulbricht.

Installations and artist's rooms are an important focus of the Kunstsammlung, an area which has been expanded continuously in recent years (through works by Marcel Broodthaers, for example). German photography is represented in the collection by the works of Bernd and Hilla Becher and other exponents of the Düsseldorf School of photographers. In the realm of new media, i.e. film and video, the collection continues to expand, and presently contains around 90 works.

In 2005, the private collection of Simone and Heinz Ackermans, which contained 150 works of international contemporary art, was acquired by the federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia following the display of selected works from the collection at the K21 from 2002 to 2005. The focus of the Ackermans Collection is art since the 1980s, on figurative sculpture, photographic works, installations, as well as film and video works.

Logo of the patrons

The Gesellschaft der Freunde der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen e.V. (Society of Friends of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen) has provided the Kunstsammlung with support since 1968. The functions fulfilled by the Society are described in its bylaws, and encompass the conceptual and material furtherance of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Its chief priority is the acquisition of works of art. Thanks to the Friends of the Kunstsammlung, a number of the museum's otherwise unattainable goals in this area have been fulfilled.

In order to cope successfully with a set of challenges which has grown continuously as the museum has expanded to occupy three separate buildings (the K20, the K21 and the Schmela Haus), the Society must call upon a continuously expanding community of "friends" who are prepared to provide both conceptual and material support for this internationally recognized museum of modern and contemporary art.

The K20 has at its disposal a publicly accessible specialist library containing literature on the art of the 20th and 21st centuries. The holdings encompass more than 100,000 volumes, which can be used on location. Among these are monographs, reference works, exhibition catalogs, periodicals, bulletins, and audiovisual media such as videos and CDs. After the death of the museum's founding director, the library was renamed the Werner Schmalenbach Library in his honor.

• List of art museums
• List of museums in Germany

• Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (ed.): Einblicke. Das 20. Jahrhundert in der Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000, ISBN 3-7757-0853-7
• Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf and Prestel Verlag, Munich, Berlin, London, New York (eds.): Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen. Prestel Verlag, Munich, 2003, ISBN 978-3-7913-5078-3
• Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (ed.): Meisterwerke des 20. und 21. Jahrhunderts, Schirmer/Mosel Produktion 2010, ISBN 978-3-941773-01-1

Media related to Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen at Wikimedia Commons

• Website of Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (in German)
• Pictures of K21
• Galerie Schmela records, 1923-2006, bulk 1957-1992, Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles. Accession No. 2007.M.17. The Galerie Schmela records include correspondence with artists and clients; gallery financial records; vintage photographic documentation of installations, gallery openings, and artworks; and extensive files of printed ephemera, posters, and press clippings.