DUSSELDORF.- New perspectives on art history: Since the summer of 2024, K20, the state museum of North Rhine-Westphalia, has been showing its collection in a comprehensive new presentation. More than 180 masterpieces of early modernism and postwar art are on display. Seminal works by iconic artists such as Paul Klee, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock, and Andy Warhol are joined by groundbreaking modern figures such as Etel Adnan, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Gabriele Münter, Alice Neel, and Marianne Werefkin, as well as works by artists from non-European regions such as Arpita Akhanda, Fouad Kamel, Mayo, Park Seo-Bo, Lygia Pape, and Hassan El- Telmisani. K20 unveiled a newly expanded presentation of its collection. Spanning an additional 800 m², the museum showcases over 30 monumental works from the 1960 to 2000 period, offering visitors new perspectives on art history.
Among the outstanding works are important examples of American Minimal art and Pop art and Italian Arte Povera, as well as large-scale sculptures, light installations, video works, and assemblages by major international artists such as Dan Flavin, Rebecca Horn, Agnes Martin, Robert Rauschenberg, Richard Serra, and Jeff Wall. Special highlights include groundbreaking works by Katharina Fritsch, Gerhard Richter, and Rosemarie Trockel, which were created in the Rhineland between 1970 and 2000 and have made these artists among the most famous in the world. With this expansion, the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein- Westfalen is showing seminal works by international artists from its collection dating from 1960 to 2000.
For Susanne Gaensheimer, director of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, the expansion of the collection marks another milestone for the museum: “The works on view as of November tell the story of postwar abstraction for a broader audience by revealing its profound ties to everyday life, societal shifts, and personal reflection, and by offering moments for all of us to see modernism through new, contemporary lenses.”
The Museum in Transition
Since Susanne Gaensheimer took up her post in 2017, the Kunstsammlung has been undergoing a programmatic process of opening up under the guiding principle of “Rethinking the Collection.” One of the central tasks is to honor the legacy of the unique collection while at the same time reimaging the museum in the context of current challenges and continuously developing the collection in the spirit of polyphony, globality, and digitality. In this process of transition, the Kunstsammlung has significantly expanded its holdings over the past seven years through acquisitions of modern painters and non- Western artists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
Between 2017 and 2024, Susanne Gaensheimer acquired more than 100 works and groups of works by women artists for the collection, including art-historically significant works by Etel Adnan, Sonia Delaunay, Noa Eshkol, Helen Frankenthaler, Simone Fattal, Isa Genzken, Carmen Herrera, Alice Neel, Henrike Naumann, Lygia Pape, Charlotte Posenenske, Anne Truitt, and Marianne Werefkin. During the same period, more than sixty-five works by non-Western artists were added to the public collection, including important works by Arpita Akhanda, Rasheed Araeen, Kader Attia and Anna Boghiguian, Martha Boto, Park Seo-Bo, Cao Fei, Isaac Julien, Fouad Kamel, Senzeni Marasela, Mayo, Zanele Muholi, Raqs Media Collective, Dayanita Singh, Hassan El-Telmisani, Wang Tuo, Ai Weiwei, and Akram Zaatari.
With works such as these, the collection is now exemplary for the history of modern abstraction and one of the world’s most prominent and polyphonic collections of modern art, expanding the art historical canon to include positions by women and non-Western artists.
Awakening and Liberation: International Art from 1960 to 2000
The Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall, capitalism and globalization, democracy movements and the decolonization of Africa marked the second half of the twentieth century. No other era has been defined by acceleration, change, and liberation as much as these times. These profound social upheavals also led to a break with modern conventions in the visual arts and to revolutionary innovations in the media. Art after 1960 broke boundaries, embracing bold new materials, techniques, and methods. That makes the art of that time challenging, experimental, and unique. At the same time, it is closely linked to the social developments of the time, such as the growth of liberal capitalism, the second wave of feminism, and the increasing commercialization of art. These interactions between artistic experimentation and critical responses to politics and society make the art of the second half of the twentieth century relevant today.
The walk through the collection follows a loose chronological structure. It interweaves thematic rooms with intergenerational dialogues. The new collection rooms highlight central themes in international art from 1960 to 2000 and their connections to the present. Visitors can immerse themselves in thematic galleries exploring connections between realism and abstraction, innovation and craftsmanship, everyday life and pop culture, feminism and identity, friendship and individuality, sculpture and performanc —offering fresh insights into the art of the late twentieth century. These complex relationships are programmatically reflected in important works in the collection, including Katharina Fritsch’s Man and Mouse (1991–92), Michelangelo Pistoletto’s Venere degli Stracci (1967), Gerhard Richter’s Ten large color charts (1966 / 1971-72), Rosemarie Trockel’s Copy me (2013), and Jeff Wall’s
Morning Cleaning, Mies van der Rohe Foundation, Barcelona (1999). For the first time in many years, these works will be presented to the public at K20 under new thematic aspects.
Curator and Head of Collection: Vivien Trommer
