Kunsthalle Bielefeld
Encyclopedia
The Kunsthalle Bielefeld is a modern art
museum in Bielefeld
, Germany
. It was designed by Philip Johnson
in 1968, and paid for by the businessman and art patron Rudolf August Oetker
.
, international sculpture, and exemplary positions of contemporary art. The permanent collection features a wide array of 20th century art, including paintings by Pablo Picasso
and Max Beckmann
, works by the Blaue Reiter
group and movements centred on László Moholy-Nagy
and Oskar Schlemmer
, and more recent art from the 1970s and '80s. The museum stands in a sculpture garden
featuring works by Auguste Rodin
, Henry Moore
, Richard Serra
, Ólafur Elíasson
and other modern sculptors.
At the 50th Venice Biennale
in 2003, the Kunsthalle presented the documentary “Ilya und Emila Kabakov: Die Utopische Stadt. 1997-2003“, which was on permanent display in the “Utopia Station Now!“. As part of its series of exhibitions of important museum collections of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
presented »The Unknown Bielefeld Collection« in 2011.
The Kunsthalle also hosts temporary exhibitions to complement the permanent collection. Recent examples have been devoted to Emil Nolde
, Rirkrit Tiravanija
, and the locally-born artist Peter Böckstiegel together with Conrad Felixmüller
. The 1991 exhibition "Picasso's Surrealism: 1925–1937" attracted 67,000 visitors; an exhibition in 2007–08, featuring art from 1937 in a variety of styles, had 47,000.
The museum also offers guided tours, teaching activities for children, and a library.
. It was built in 1968 by the American architect Philip Johnson
in the International Style
that he had founded, and is his only museum building in Europe. Johnson had been been invited by the museum's director Joachim Wolfgang von Moltke and Rudolf August Oetker
in 1966. In 1994, Frank O. Gehry proposed an extension to the existing building; it was never realized. The museum was refurbished in 2002.
Cubic in shape and with a square ground level, it has three storeys above ground, two below, and a total exhibition space of 1200 square metres (12,916.7 sq ft). The facade is of red sandstone
.
expressed a desire for it be called the Richard-Kaselowsky-Haus, after his stepfather. Kaselowsky was a controversial figure in Bielefeld due to his Nazi past, including membership in not only the NSDAP but also the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft
. This led to a debate in Bielefeld, coinciding with the general social unrest of 1968
and becoming a major theme of it. The composer Hans Werner Henze
cancelled the piano concert he had written for the inauguration, and the Minister-President of North-Rhine Westphalia, Heinz Kühn
, excused himself from the ceremony along with two federal ministers. This led to the event, with 1,200 invitees, being completely cancelled – but the city council stuck to its choice of name. The "silent" opening on 27 September 1968 was accompanied by protests. A memorial to Kaselowsky, commemorating him as a victim of the heavy aerial bombing of September 1944, remains in the entrance hall to this day.
In the following years, the Kunsthalle ceased using the controversial part of its name in public. The discussion was revived in 1998 when the then-director, Thomas Kellein, sought to strengthen ties with the Oetkers and resurrected the Kaselowsky name. After the attempt to reach an uncontroversial solution failed, the city council changed the name to simply Kunsthalle Bielefeld, whereupon Rudolf Oetker ended his support and withdrew all the works that he had loaned to the collection.
Modern art
Modern art includes artistic works produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s, and denotes the style and philosophy of the art produced during that era. The term is usually associated with art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of...
museum in Bielefeld
Bielefeld
Bielefeld is an independent city in the Ostwestfalen-Lippe Region in the north-east of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. With a population of 323,000, it is also the most populous city in the Regierungsbezirk Detmold...
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It was designed by Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
in 1968, and paid for by the businessman and art patron Rudolf August Oetker
Rudolf August Oetker
Rudolf August Oetker was a German entrepreneur who became a billionaire running his private food company Oetker-Gruppe....
.
Collection and exhibitions
Initiated in 1950 with a donation by Oetker and gradually expanded from 1954 with municipal acquisitions, the collection focuses on ExpressionismExpressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
, international sculpture, and exemplary positions of contemporary art. The permanent collection features a wide array of 20th century art, including paintings by Pablo Picasso
Pablo Picasso
Pablo Diego José Francisco de Paula Juan Nepomuceno María de los Remedios Cipriano de la Santísima Trinidad Ruiz y Picasso known as Pablo Ruiz Picasso was a Spanish expatriate painter, sculptor, printmaker, ceramicist, and stage designer, one of the greatest and most influential artists of the...
and Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement...
, works by the Blaue Reiter
Der Blaue Reiter
Der Blaue Reiter was a group of artists from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München in Munich, Germany. The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, and native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and...
group and movements centred on László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy
László Moholy-Nagy was a Hungarian painter and photographer as well as professor in the Bauhaus school. He was highly influenced by constructivism and a strong advocate of the integration of technology and industry into the arts.-Early life:...
and Oskar Schlemmer
Oskar Schlemmer
Oskar Schlemmer was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923 he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working some time at the workshop of sculpture...
, and more recent art from the 1970s and '80s. The museum stands in a sculpture garden
Sculpture garden
A sculpture garden is an outdoor garden dedicated to the presentation of sculpture, usually several permanently sited works in durable materials in landscaped surroundings....
featuring works by Auguste Rodin
Auguste Rodin
François-Auguste-René Rodin , known as Auguste Rodin , was a French sculptor. Although Rodin is generally considered the progenitor of modern sculpture, he did not set out to rebel against the past...
, Henry Moore
Henry Moore
Henry Spencer Moore OM CH FBA was an English sculptor and artist. He was best known for his semi-abstract monumental bronze sculptures which are located around the world as public works of art....
, Richard Serra
Richard Serra
Richard Serra is an American minimalist sculptor and video artist known for working with large-scale assemblies of sheet metal. Serra was involved in the Process Art Movement.-Early life and education:...
, Ólafur Elíasson
Ólafur Elíasson
Olafur Eliasson is a Danish-Icelandic artist known for sculptures and large-scale installation art employing elemental materials such as light, water, and air temperature to enhance the viewer’s experience. In 1995 he established Studio Olafur Eliasson in Berlin, a laboratory for spatial research...
and other modern sculptors.
At the 50th Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
in 2003, the Kunsthalle presented the documentary “Ilya und Emila Kabakov: Die Utopische Stadt. 1997-2003“, which was on permanent display in the “Utopia Station Now!“. As part of its series of exhibitions of important museum collections of twentieth- and twenty-first-century art, the Bundeskunsthalle Bonn
Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland
Kunst- und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland is a museum in Bonn, Germany....
presented »The Unknown Bielefeld Collection« in 2011.
The Kunsthalle also hosts temporary exhibitions to complement the permanent collection. Recent examples have been devoted to Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors...
, Rirkrit Tiravanija
Rirkrit Tiravanija
Rirkrit Tiravanija is a contemporary artist residing in New York. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina in 1961. His installations often take the form of stages or rooms for sharing meals, cooking, reading or playing music; architecture or structures for living and socializing are a core element...
, and the locally-born artist Peter Böckstiegel together with Conrad Felixmüller
Conrad Felixmüller
Conrad Felixmüller was a German Expressionist painter. Born in as Conrad Felix Müller, he chose Felixmüller as his nom d'artiste....
. The 1991 exhibition "Picasso's Surrealism: 1925–1937" attracted 67,000 visitors; an exhibition in 2007–08, featuring art from 1937 in a variety of styles, had 47,000.
The museum also offers guided tours, teaching activities for children, and a library.
Architecture
The museum is located on the south-west edge of Bielefeld's old townOld Town
Old Town is the typical designation of a historic or original core of a city or town. Although the city may be larger in its present form, many cities have redesignated this part of the city to commemorate its origins after thorough renovations...
. It was built in 1968 by the American architect Philip Johnson
Philip Johnson
Philip Cortelyou Johnson was an influential American architect.In 1930, he founded the Department of Architecture and Design at the Museum of Modern Art in New York City, and later , as a trustee, he was awarded an American Institute of Architects Gold Medal and the first Pritzker Architecture...
in the International Style
International style (architecture)
The International style is a major architectural style that emerged in the 1920s and 1930s, the formative decades of Modern architecture. The term originated from the name of a book by Henry-Russell Hitchcock and Philip Johnson, The International Style...
that he had founded, and is his only museum building in Europe. Johnson had been been invited by the museum's director Joachim Wolfgang von Moltke and Rudolf August Oetker
Rudolf August Oetker
Rudolf August Oetker was a German entrepreneur who became a billionaire running his private food company Oetker-Gruppe....
in 1966. In 1994, Frank O. Gehry proposed an extension to the existing building; it was never realized. The museum was refurbished in 2002.
Cubic in shape and with a square ground level, it has three storeys above ground, two below, and a total exhibition space of 1200 square metres (12,916.7 sq ft). The facade is of red sandstone
Sandstone
Sandstone is a sedimentary rock composed mainly of sand-sized minerals or rock grains.Most sandstone is composed of quartz and/or feldspar because these are the most common minerals in the Earth's crust. Like sand, sandstone may be any colour, but the most common colours are tan, brown, yellow,...
.
Naming dispute
When he endowed the building, Rudolf OetkerRudolf August Oetker
Rudolf August Oetker was a German entrepreneur who became a billionaire running his private food company Oetker-Gruppe....
expressed a desire for it be called the Richard-Kaselowsky-Haus, after his stepfather. Kaselowsky was a controversial figure in Bielefeld due to his Nazi past, including membership in not only the NSDAP but also the Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft
Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft
The Freundeskreis der Wirtschaft, or Circle of Friends of the Economy was a group of German industrialists whose aim was to raise funds for racial research within the Third Reich...
. This led to a debate in Bielefeld, coinciding with the general social unrest of 1968
Protests of 1968
The protests of 1968 consisted of a worldwide series of protests, largely participated in by students and workers.-Background:Background speculations of overall causality vary about the political protests centering on the year 1968. Some argue that protests could be attributed to the social changes...
and becoming a major theme of it. The composer Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze
Hans Werner Henze is a German composer of prodigious output best known for "his consistent cultivation of music for the theatre throughout his life"...
cancelled the piano concert he had written for the inauguration, and the Minister-President of North-Rhine Westphalia, Heinz Kühn
Heinz Kühn
Heinz Kühn was a German politician and Minister-President of North Rhine-Westphalia . He was born in Cologne.- External links :*...
, excused himself from the ceremony along with two federal ministers. This led to the event, with 1,200 invitees, being completely cancelled – but the city council stuck to its choice of name. The "silent" opening on 27 September 1968 was accompanied by protests. A memorial to Kaselowsky, commemorating him as a victim of the heavy aerial bombing of September 1944, remains in the entrance hall to this day.
In the following years, the Kunsthalle ceased using the controversial part of its name in public. The discussion was revived in 1998 when the then-director, Thomas Kellein, sought to strengthen ties with the Oetkers and resurrected the Kaselowsky name. After the attempt to reach an uncontroversial solution failed, the city council changed the name to simply Kunsthalle Bielefeld, whereupon Rudolf Oetker ended his support and withdrew all the works that he had loaned to the collection.