RECKLINGHAUSEN.- The 75th-anniversary of the Kunsthalle concludes with the exhibition “Affinities”, which brings together works from the Kunsthalle’s own collection, the former Vestisches Museum, and the Icon Museum, combined with nationally and internationally renowned guest artists.

With works by Søren Aagaard, Marina Apollonio, Katja Aufleger, Noémi Barbaglia, Béatrice Balcou, Marianne Berenhaut, Erich Bödecker, Hal Busse, Vivian Ellis, Ayşe Erkmen, Ângela Ferreira, Isabella Fürnkäs, Christine Gironcoli, Katharina Grosse, Dor Guez, Flo Kasearu, Barbara Kasten, Tadeshi Kawamata, Per Kirkeby, Mischa Kuball, Sigalit Landau, Jeewi Lee, Julio Le Parc, James Lewis, Heinz Mack, Paola Siri Renard, Anahita Razmi, Michael Sailstorfer, Morgaine Schäfer, Mona Schulzek, Berit Schneidereit, Franz Erhard Walther, Andy Warhol and objects from the paleontological collection of the former Vestisches Museum, as well as works from the Icon-Museum Recklinghausen.

All works relate to the institution’s exhibition history, to curatorial ideas, or to displays spanning from the earliest years of the Kunsthalle to the present. They are presented as aesthetic kinships that transcend traditional questions of epochs and genres. These relationships shall be understood and presented as “Affinities”. Referring back to the groundbreaking beginnings of the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen in the 1950s and 1960s, the thematic exhibitions of the 1970s and 1980s, and the major monographic projects of the 1990s, “Affinities” aims to offer a kaleidoscopic retrospective as well as a forward looking perspective for the Kunsthalle and the art displayed within it.

The Kunsthalle Recklinghausen is a municipal museum with a collection of over 5,000 works that has continuously grown since it was founded in 1950. Historically linked with the former Vestisches Museum, the Kunsthalle today focuses on works of the artist group “junger westen,” founded in Recklinghausen in 1947, and continuously purchased works by the winners of the same prize, as well as kinetic art, ZERO, Art Informel, and it sports an important collection of non academically trained artists that had links to the the cole miners’ milieu of the region.

With cornerstones of the collection like Gerhard Richter's "Kitchen Chair" (1965) currently on view at the Foundation Louis Vuitton in Paris or Marina Apollonio's "Dynamique circulaire" (1966) recently returned from loan to the Peggy Guggenheim Foundation in Venice, the collection of the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen often has its works on display around the world. Lacking non-male perspectives in the collection (to name but one challenge) the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen already started to diversify since Nico Anklam became its director in 2021 and this process is ongoing. "Affinities" shows amongst others recent acquistions by Katja Aufleger, Béatrice Balcou, Noémi Barbaglia, Marianne Berenhaut, Hal Busse, Ângela Ferreira, Isabella Fürnkäs, Barbara Kasten, Jeewi Lee, Paola Siri Renard, Morgaine Schäfer, Berit Schneidereit, and Mona Schulzek.

Curated by Nico Anklam.