The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein (Liechtenstein Art Museum) is the state museum of modern and contemporary art in Vaduz

Vaduz

Vaduz is the capital of the principality of Liechtenstein and the seat of the national parliament. The town, located along the Rhine, has about 5,100 inhabitants , most of whom are Roman Catholic. Its cathedral is the seat of a Roman Catholic archbishop....

. The building by the Swiss architects Meinrad Morger, Heinrich Degelo and Christian Kerez was completed in November 2000. The museum collection of international modern and contemporary art is also the national art collection of the Principality of Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein

The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...

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History

In 1967, the State of Liechtenstein received a gift of ten paintings which resulted in the foundation of the State Art Collection of Liechtenstein the following year. The first curator of the collection was Dr. Georg Malin, a Liechtenstein artist, historian and art historian. He soon expanded the collection to include international modern and contemporary art.

The building of the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein how it presents itself today was realized with the support of a group of private donors. Together with the government of Liechtenstein and the City of Vaduz, they planned and implemented the construction of the museum.

In August 2000, the building was officially donated to the Principality of Liechtenstein as a millennium gift. The government established a public foundation to operate the museum. The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein was formally opened on November 12, 2000.

Since 1996, Mr. Friedemann Malsch has been director of the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein.

Architecture

The Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein was built by the Swiss architects Meinrad Morger and Heinrich Degelo, along with Christian Kerez. Together they have created a museum building of great structural complexity and discreet simplicity. The closed form is a “black box” of tinted concrete and black basalt stone. River pebbles embedded in the building’s exterior provide a subtle coloration, forming a link to the landscape of the Rhine Valley

Rhine Valley

The Rhine Valley is a glacial alpine valley, formed by the Alpine Rhine , i.e. the section of the Rhine River between the confluence of the Anterior Rhine and Posterior Rhine at Reichenau and its mouth at Lake Constance....

. The hand-carved surface of the facade invites touching, and reflects the surroundings. Long rows of windows open the black cube to both inside and outside.

Inside the black box is a perfect White Cube

White Cube

White Cube is a contemporary art gallery designed by MRJ Rundell & Associates in Hoxton Square in the East End of London Mason's Yard, in central London and White Cube Bermondsey in South East London...

. The building is clearly structured with maximum space devoted to art. The visible exterior of the building corresponds almost exactly to the public exhibition spaces. There are six exhibition rooms arranged around two diametrically opposed staircases. The ground plan, reminiscent of a windmill’s sails, enables diagonal views through the whole building. These exhibition rooms offer art the largest possible freedom through their clarity and precision.

Collection

The collection of the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is one of international modern and contemporary art. It covers the period from the nineteenth century to the present with a focus on sculpture

Sculpture

Sculpture is three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard materials—typically stone such as marble—or metal, glass, or wood. Softer materials can also be used, such as clay, textiles, plastics, polymers and softer metals...

s and installations

Installation art

Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...

. Within the collection of the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein well known are works by artists of the Arte Povera

Arte Povera

Arte Povera is a modern art movement. The term was introduced in Italy during the period of upheaval at the end of the 1960s, when artists were taking a radical stance. Artists began attacking the values of established institutions of government, industry, and culture, and even questioning whether...

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In 2006, the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein together with the Kunstmuseum St.Gallen and the Museum of Modern Art, Frankfurt

Museum für Moderne Kunst

The Museum für Moderne Kunst in Frankfurt am Main was founded in 1981. The museum was designed by the Viennese architect Hans Hollein. Because of its triangular shape, it is called "piece of cake"....

 acquired the collection of Cologne based galerist Rolf Ricke that includes works by Richard Artschwager

Richard Artschwager

Richard Artschwager is an American painter, illustrator and sculptor, born in 1923 in Washington, D.C.. Artschwager is best known for his stylistic independence; although he has associations with the Pop Art movement, Conceptual art and Minimalism....

, Bill Bollinger

Bill Bollinger

Bill Bollinger was an American artist. In the late 1960s, he was one of the foremost sculptors of his time, routinely mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Bruce Nauman, Robert Smithson, Eva Hesse and Richard Serra...

, Donald Judd

Donald Judd

Donald Clarence Judd was an American artist associated with minimalism . In his work, Judd sought autonomy and clarity for the constructed object and the space created by it, ultimately achieving a rigorously democratic presentation without compositional hierarchy...

, Fabian Marcaccio

Fabian Marcaccio

Fabian Marcaccio is an Argentine born artist living and working in the United States whose trans-genre works including "Paintants" and '"Draftants" have been exhibited worldwide....

, Steven Parrino, David Reed

David Reed (artist)

David Reed is a contemporary American conceptual and visual artist.-Art:David Reed is known as a colorist and for creating long, narrow abstract paintings on canvas that are hung either lengthwise or vertically and feature several images resembling enlarged photographs of swirling brushstrokes...

, 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:...

, Keith Sonnier

Keith Sonnier

Keith Sonnier is a Postminimalist, performance, video and light artist. Sonnier was one of the first artists to use light in sculpture in the 1960s, and has been one of the most successful with this technique...

 or Jessica Stockholder

Jessica Stockholder

Jessica Stockholder is a sculptor and installation artist who has had exhibitions in Europe and USA, her works, "challenge boundaries, blurring the distinction among painting, sculpture and environment, and even breaching gallery walls by extending beyond windows and doors".-Life and...

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Exhibitions

Past exhibitions include Otto Freundlich

Otto Freundlich

Otto Freundlich was a German painter and sculptor of Jewish origin and one of the first generation of abstract artists.-Life:...

, Gottfried Honegger

Gottfried Honegger

Gottfried Honegger is a Swiss artist and graphic designer. He was married to the Swiss illustrator Warja Lavater. He studied shop-window display at the Zurich Kunstgewerbeschule and taught there from 1948...

, Leiko Ikemura

Leiko Ikemura

is a Japanese-Swiss painter and sculptor.-Biography:Leiko Ikemura left her country to study in Spain from 1973 to 1978 at the Academia de Bellas Artes in Granada and Seville. In 1979, Ikemura moved to Zurich to live and worked there for 4 years. The first of her mature paintings developed around 1980...

, Rita McBride, Paul Klee

Paul Klee

Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...

, Jochen Gerz, André Thomkins

André Thomkins

André Thomkins is a Swiss painter, illustrator, and poet. From 1952, he lived in Germany and taught at the art academy in Düsseldorf between 1971 and 1973....

, František Kupka

František Kupka

František Kupka was a Czech painter and graphic artist. He was a pioneer and co-founder of the early phases of the abstract art movement and Orphic cubism...

, Andy Warhol

Andy Warhol

Andrew Warhola , known as Andy Warhol, was an American painter, printmaker, and filmmaker who was a leading figure in the visual art movement known as pop art...

, Fabian Marcaccio

Fabian Marcaccio

Fabian Marcaccio is an Argentine born artist living and working in the United States whose trans-genre works including "Paintants" and '"Draftants" have been exhibited worldwide....

, Alighiero Boetti

Alighiero Boetti

Alighiero Fabrizio Boetti known as Alighiero e Boetti was an Italian conceptual artist, considered to be a member of the art movement Arte Povera....

, Fred Sandback

Fred Sandback

Fred Sandback was a minimalist conceptual-based sculptor known for his yarn sculptures, drawings, and prints.-Life and work:...

, Georg Malin, Sean Scully

Sean Scully

Sean Scully is an Irish-born American painter and printmaker who has twice been named a Turner Prize nominee. His work is collected in major museums worldwide.-Life and work:...

, Matts Leiderstam, Ferdinand Nigg, Monika Sosnowska

Monika Sosnowska

Monika Sosnowska was born 1972 in Ryki, Poland. She studied at the Painting Department of the , and the in Amsterdam Monika Sosnowska was born 1972 in Ryki, Poland. She studied at the Painting Department of the (1993–1998), and the in Amsterdam Monika Sosnowska was born 1972 in Ryki, Poland....

, Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys

Joseph Beuys was a German performance artist, sculptor, installation artist, graphic artist, art theorist and pedagogue of art.His extensive work is grounded in concepts of humanism, social philosophy and anthroposophy; it culminates in his "extended definition of art" and the idea of social...

, Thomas Schütte

Thomas Schütte

Thomas Schütte is a German contemporary artist. From 1973 to 1981 he studied art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf alongside Katharina Fritsch under Gerhard Richter and Fritz Schwegler. He lives and works in Düsseldorf.-Work:In the early 1980s Schütte began a series of small sculptural works...

, Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Malevich

Kazimir Severinovich Malevich was a Russian painter and art theoretician, born of ethnic Polish parents. He was a pioneer of geometric abstract art and the originator of the Avant-garde Suprematist movement.-Early life:...

, Martin Frommelt, Matti Braun, Christian Boltanski

Christian Boltanski

Christian Boltanski is French sculptor, photographer, painter and film maker.-Life and work:Having no formal art education, he began painting in 1958. Nevertheless, he first came to public attention in 1960 with few short films and publication of several notebooks...

, Gotthard Graubner

Gotthard Graubner

Gotthard Graubner is a German painter. He was born in Erlbach, in Saxony, studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Berlin, the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and the Academy of Arts in Düsseldorf, before becoming a professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Hamburg, in 1969...

, Bill Bollinger

Bill Bollinger

Bill Bollinger was an American artist. In the late 1960s, he was one of the foremost sculptors of his time, routinely mentioned in the same breath as the likes of Bruce Nauman, Robert Smithson, Eva Hesse and Richard Serra...

 or Bojan Šarčević

Bojan Šarcevic

Bojan Šarčević is a Bosnian-French visual artist. His work includes video, installations, site-responsive architectural interventions, photographic collage, more or less abstract sculpture, and printed publications.-Life:...

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In addition, the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein also shows special exhibitions with works from the Collection of the Prince of Liechtenstein

Liechtenstein Museum

The Liechtenstein Museum is in Vienna, Austria, named after the princely House of Liechtenstein, one of Europe's oldest noble families. The museum includes the Princely Collections containing important European works of art, forming one of the world's leading private art collections.The museum has...

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External links

• www.kunstmuseum.li