From Dürer to Kiefer - Five Centuries of Art on Paper

This summer Kunsthal Rotterdam puts on display a large survey of five centuries of art on paper. This unique selection contains over 140 works of internationally renowned artists. The works belong to fifty museums from the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen and show a cross section of Western art history. Works by old masters like Dürer and Rembrandt, by modern artists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch and Picasso and by contemporary artists like Anselm Kiefer, Louise Bourgeois and Gerhard Richter have been brought together for the very first time. Due to the diversity of museums participating the exhibition shows a rich collection of refined engravings, colourful aquarelles, pencil drawings, lithos, screen prints, photographs, etchings and monotypes, which are only rarely shown to the public as a result of their vulnerability. The exhibition is clearly the high point of the Jahr der Grafik and has been composed especially for the Kunsthal.

Five Centuries of Art on Paper Amongst the earliest works is a beautiful engraving by Dürer (ca. 1498), a woodcut by Michael Wolgemuth (1493) and a chalk drawing by Rembrandt from 1657. Etchings by Emil Nolde and James Ensor and lithos by Odilon Redon and Maurice Denis illustrate the developments within international art around 1900. Modern art from Germany from the period between 1900 and 1950 is presented at a central location within the pavilion with works by expressionists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Ernst, and by artists representing the so-called ‘Der Blaue Reiter’ group, amongst whom Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and August Macke. Screen prints by Roy Lichtenstein and Joseph Beuys and drawings by Louise Bourgeois create an image of international contemporary art after 1946. From the twenty-first century an illustrated diary by Erik van Lieshout is shown. The works are put on display in a pavilion that was built exclusively for the exhibition in the day light hall of the Kunsthal.

Jahr der Grafik In 2009 the so-called Jahr der Grafik is organised in Germany, Austria and Switzerland in order to pay attention to ‘works on paper’. In museological collections pencil drawings, chalk etchings and aquarelles are hardly ever exhibited because of the light restrictions they demand. Throughout the ages paper has been an outstanding medium for artists to express new ideas and to visualize thoughts. Amongst the museums from Nordrhein-Westfalen participating are Kunsthalle Bielefeld, Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst (Aken), Museum Folkwang (Essen), Kunstmuseum Krefeld, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum (Cologne) and Goethe Museum Düsseldorf that have all given one or more works in loan.

Publication To the exhibition a book with essays on the history of collecting art on paper and the important role that drawings play within art history is to appear. In this publication the fifty museums from Nordrhein-Westfalen make explanatory remarks on their graphic collection and its highlights (ISBN 978-3-941559-03-5.

From Dürer to Kiefer - Five Centuries of Art on Paper
Von Dürer bis Kiefer
Fünf Jahrhunderte Kunst auf Papier aus Museen in Nordrhein-Westfalen
jahr der graphik in nrw
Kuratoren: Emily Ansenk, Ron Manheim

Künstler: Andreas Achenbach, Alexander Archipenko, Silvia Bächli, Georg Baselitz, Willi Baumeister, Hans Sebald Beham, Ella Bergmann-Michel, Joseph Beuys, Peter August Böckstiegel, Pierre Bonnard, Louise Bourgeois, George Brecht, Max Brod, Peter Brüning, David Young Cameron, Rolf Cavael, Marc Chagall, Daniel Nikolaus Chodowiecki,  Christo , Lovis Corinth, Peter Cornelius, Paula Dehmel, Maurice Denis, Otto Dix, Marlene Dumas, Albrecht Dürer, James Ensor, Max Ernst, Li Fan, Lyonel Feininger, Conrad Felixmüller, Herbert W. Franke, Ma Gang, Irene Gerlach, Werner Gilles, Julio González, Dietrich Graminäus / Franz Hogenberg, HAP Grieshaber, George Grosz, Hans Guldenmundt, Wilfried Hagebölling, Rembrandt van Rijn, Carl Georg Hasenpflug, Erich Heckel, Erwin Heerich, Christof Heydruck, Gerhard Hoehme, Pieter Holsteijn de Oude, Hieronymus Hopfer, Horst Janssen, Wassily Kandinsky, Erich Kästner, Anselm Kiefer, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Cesar Klein, Max Klinger, Käthe Kollwitz, Jannis Kounellis, Frantisek Kupka, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Roy Lichtenstein, Max Liebermann, Erik van Lieshout, Liu Liping, El Lissitzky, Markus Lüpertz, August Macke, Kasimir Malewitsch, Franz Marc, Ludwig Meidner, Carlo Mense, Pier Francesco Mola, Wilhelm Morgner, Robert Motherwell, Edvard Munch, Gustav Naeke, Emil Nolde, Claes Oldenburg, Blinky Palermo, Otto Pankok, Max Pechstein, Pablo Picasso, E.O.  (Erich Ohser), Odilon Redon, Alfred Rethel, Ludwig Richter, Gerhard Richter, Elias Ridinger, Joachim Ringelnatz, Christian Rohlfs, Ingo Ronkholz, Hans Rottenhammer, Philipp Otto Runge, Johann Wilhelm Schirmer, Emil Schumacher, Kurt Schwitters, Paul Adolf Seehaus, Tom Seidmann-Freud, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Sigrid Sigurdsson, E. J. von Steinle, Hermann Stenner, Eduard Sturm, Antoni Tàpies, Jan Toorop, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, Hann Trier, Niklaus Troxler, Cy Twombly, Victor Vasarely, Andy Warhol, Gert Weber, Paul Wieghardt, Egon Wilden, Woldemar Winkler, Fritz Winter, Michael Wohlgemuth, Isabel Zuber

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