Museum A bis Z. Von Anfang bis Zukunft
In the organizer's words:
What constitutes a museum, and what should it be like in the future? What tasks does a museum have, and what wishes do we have for the museum as an institution and for the Von der Heydt Museum in particular?
The exhibition "Museum A to Z: From the beginning to the future" provides unusual and unfamiliar insights into the history and diversity of the collection on the one hand and looks to the future on the other. In addition to the classic tasks of collecting, preserving, researching, exhibiting and communicating, the role of museums is increasingly being shaped by current issues such as diversity, digitalization, decolonization and participation.
"Museum A to Z" takes you from the beginning to the future: from the founding phase of the museum to topics such as local and global collecting, colonial contexts, provenance research and restitution, to possible perspectives for further development. The presentation thus complements the newly conceived permanent exhibition "Times and Spaces. Classics of the Collection" and, for the first time, highlights the surprising diversity of the Von der Heydt Museum's historically grown holdings, including little-known areas such as the decorative arts and non-European objects.
On display, for example, are textiles from present-day Indonesia and non-European sculptures, which are juxtaposed with Wuppertal views by Adolf Erbslöh, Carl Grossberg, Erich Heckel, Oskar Schlemmer and Marie Luise Oertel, among others. The diversity of objects is conveyed via an organizational structure that stands outside of purely content-based categories: paintings by Ottilie W. Roederstein, Emmy Klinker or Paula Modersohn-Becker, for example, show the diversity of genres in painting, while craft objects make the variety of materials and techniques tangible.
Provenance research is another important focus of the exhibition: Its significance is explained with a focus on the painting "Portrait of Felix Benjamin" by Max Liebermann, which was restituted to the heirs of Felix Benjamin, who was persecuted and murdered by the National Socialists, in 2023 and subsequently reacquired.
A central point of the exhibition is the barrier-free mediation both in the museum and in the digital space: for the first time, a tactile model of Max Pechstein's painting "The Artist's Son on the Sofa" will make it easier for blind and visually impaired people to find their way to art and will be supplemented by a specially developed guided tour program.
Museum A to Z" will be accompanied by a diverse program of educational activities and events. Against the backdrop of the Von der Heydt Museum's upcoming 125th anniversary in 2027, the exhibition invites visitors to discuss its current and future tasks and to formulate their wishes.
Price information:
Day ticket € 12 Reduced € 10 Students, trainees, holders of a culture pass € 5 Pupils aged 18 and over € 2 Children under 17 free of charge
Location
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