A new and larger musée Unterlinden 12nd December 2015

The Unterlinden Museum Expansion Project (Summer 2012 – December 2015)

The Musée Unterlinden is currently at work on an innovative reinstallation of its collections, which also involves a considerable expansion of its exhibition space, designed by the renowned architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron, and the Monuments Historiques for the renovation work in the former convent. The former convent and Colmar’s municipal baths are being refurbished and redesigned for the installation of the museum’s collection of ancient art as well as areas to accommodate special events, while a new, copper-sheathed brick building will house its modern and contemporary art collections on two levels, with a third devoted to temporary exhibitions. An underground gallery connecting the former convent to the new structure will feature a panoramic survey of art from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Design team The museum is currently in the midst of a major renovation and expansion project, to be completed by the end of December 2015 and designed by the world-renowned architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron, in collaboration with the senior heritage architect Richard Duplat, whose practice is listed with Monuments Historiques, the French government commission for the protection of historical monuments. Honoured with the Pritzker Architecture Prize in 2001, Herzog & de Meuron’s achievements include the celebrated “Bird’s Nest” stadium built for the 2008 Beijing Olympics, the Tate Modern in London, the Park Avenue Armory Unveils Restored Board of Officers Room in New York (2013), the Pérez Art Museum in Miami (2014).

The project The extension project for the Unterlinden Museum in Colmar encompasses two ensembles facing each other across the future Unterlinden Square: on one side, the medieval cloister with the chapel currently housing Grünewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece and, on the other, as its counterpart, a new wing similar to the chapel in volume which, together with the former municipal baths buildings, form a second courtyard on the other side of the Unterlinden Square. Between the two, a house marks the museum’s presence in the city.

Linking the convent with the new wing is an underground gallery comprising three successive exhibition rooms passing through this little house. The latter’s generous window space offers a view of the Unterlinden Square and vice versa.

The refurbishing of the Square is an important part of the extension project. The intention here is not to impose a modernist or contemporary architectural intervention but rather, to partially recreate the city’s original historic fabric such as the reopening of the Sinn Canal which will bring back an axis of symmetry between the two ensembles of buildings.

Hence, it is from the Unterlinden Square that one enters the museum’s ensemble as well as the new boutique and the internal distribution. The convent’s facade composed of elements dating from different periods, is to be handled unobtrusively and precisely. The existing museum within the cloister as well as the chapel, representing a current exhibition surface area of 3,300 m2 will be updated to comply with contemporary safety standards. This work is carried out in close collaboration with the French national heritage, also responsible for the restoration. The new wing, similar in volume to the Dominican convent chapel, brings to mind but does not imitate Archaic architecture. Its broken brick facades enable the recreation of a rough texture that integrates

Musée Unterlinden, Colmar (Alsace) - France 2 the building into its historic context at the heart of Colmar. Roofing and gable rake are to be in copper. The small house on the square is planned in the same materials.

The new wing’s three-storied building, specifically intended to hold temporary exhibitions and the 20th- and 21st-century collections, increases the exhibition surface by 1,400 m2. Its openings frame specific views of the city, thus orienting viewers and punctuating the space with natural light. These windows are a transformation between a rectangular form on the inside and an ogival one on the outside.

The first floor features a connection between the former pool and the new wing, with the space of the former pool to serve as both an events venue and a space for art installations that do not require climatic control. This will turn the pool into an attraction pole for the people of Colmar, who will use and visit the space during a variety of events. Meanwhile, the courtyard facades, originally hidden by the secondary function of the municipal baths, are to be renovated in a historic perspective. The former pool’s ground floor will provide the Tourist Office with new representative spaces offering direct access to the Unterlinden Square facing the museum’s main entrance. The former municipal baths’ administrative offices, to be delicately renovated, will house the museum offices and those of the Société Schongauer.

Our project brings together three dimensions in a close and logical association: the urban, the museographic and the architectural. The Unterlinden Museum, in terms of both its architecture and its content, is part of the city’s history. We have set out to make that relationship manifest in a novel architectural synthesis able to project the museum into the future.

Herzog & de Meuron, 2011

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The musée Unterlinden 2015

The Musée Unterlinden is currently at work on an innovative reinstallation of its collections, which also involves a considerable expansion of its exhibition space. Designed by the renowned architecture practice Herzog & de Meuron, in association with Monuments Historiques, the French government commission for the preservation of historic buildings, this project offers the museum new facilities fully in keeping with its unique status among cultural institutions. The former convent and Colmar’s municipal baths are being refurbished and redesigned for the installation of the museum’s collection of ancient art as well as areas to accommodate special events, while a new, copper-sheathed brick building will house its modern and contemporary art collections on two levels, with a third devoted to temporary exhibitions. An underground gallery connecting the former convent to the new structure will feature a presentation of the museum’s history as well as a panoramic survey of art from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

New visit

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Cloister

New entrance, musée Unterlinden, Colmar © Herzog & de Meuron

New reception facilities are offered for the benefit and comfort of the museum’s visitors (cloakroom, welcoming station for orientation and guidance, group instruction room, museumshop).

Archaeological artifacts Visitors exploring the museum’s collection of archaeological artefacts learn about the various phases of human evolution through objects used in everyday life or for funerary rites. Among the most important pieces exhibited are an exceptionally rare iron dagger, a torque and a remarkable bracelet in gold that had belonged to a Celtic prince, and a Romanera mosaic.

Art of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance The museum’s permanent collections of medieval and Renaissance art offer visitors the opportunity to explore the multiple facets of Germanic art in depth, including painted panels, sculptures, tapestries, silver and gold pieces, stained-glass windows, etc. Masterpieces as the Melancholy (1532) by Lucas Cranach the Elder and the Portrait of a Woman (c. 1510) by Hans Holbein the Elder, illustrate the ways in which human beings and their perceptions of the world around them became central in the art of this period.

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Decorative arts / Folk art and traditions Among the museum’s decorative art holdings on view in this section are an exceptional group of objects in faience and porcelain produced in eastern France, treasures in silver and gold as well as remarkable hunting and military weapons. The museum’s collection of folk art and traditions presents the Alsatian way of life, including its culinary traditions and the art of winemaking in Colmar, the wine capital of Alsace, with a wine cellar and wine presses.

Chapel

The Isenheim Altarpiece The museum is home to one of the masterpieces of Western art, the Isenheim Altarpiece (with painted panels by Grünewald and sculptures by Nicolas de Haguenau) executed between 1512 and 1516 for the monastery of the Antonite order in Isenheim, a village south of Colmar. This religious institution had a hospice on the premises where the monks ministered to victims of Saint Anthony’s fire, a disfiguring disease now called ergotism caused by the ingestion of rye infected with ergot. Visitors are always deeply affected by this altarpiece as much due to the expressiveness of its figures (Crucifixion) as its modernity (Concert of Angels). The choir of the convent’s chapel is entirely dedicated to the Isenheim Altarpiece. In the tribune gallery, multimedia tools are offered to help visitors fully grasp the iconography and the context in which the Isenheim Altarpiece was commissioned.

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Isenheim Altarpiece, chapel, musée Unterlinden © Herzog & de Meuron

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Gallery

This gallery connecting the former convent to the new structure is divided into three exhibition spaces presenting the museum’s history as well as its collections of art from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

Petite Maison A focal point of the new Musée Unterlinden, the Petite Maison brings natural light into the underground gallery and presents three emblematic works: Théophile Schuler’s Chariot of Death (1851), engaging with history and the past, Georges Rouault’s The Child Jesus Among the Doctors (1894), attesting to the extent of the museum’s holdings in religious art, and Nicolas de Staël’s Portrait of Anne (1953), indicating its openness to modern and contemporary art.

© Herzog & de Meuron Musée Unterlinden, Colmar (Alsace) - France 8

New wing

The two levels of the museum’s new wing, sheathed in copper with a textured façade composed of broken bricks, house its modern art collection. Works of major artists such as Dubuffet and Picasso are presented here. The collection is especially strong in artists representing movements in abstract art after the Second World War (Poliakoff, Soulages, Vieira da Silva).

Modern art room, the new wing, musée Unterlinden © Herzog & de Meuron

A major temporary exhibition held each year! The third level of the new wing is given over to important temporary exhibitions.

The following events are already scheduled:

Exhibition by Herzog & de Meuron, curators (December 2015)

“Otto Dix and the Isenheim Altarpiece” (2016)

“Martin Schongauer, His Life’s Work and Its Impact” (2017)

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Baths

Events room, the baths, musée Unterlinden © Herzog & de Meuron

With the renovation of the municipal baths, this edifice is returned to its early twentieth-century glory. Special events organised by the Musée Unterlinden are held at this venue (exhibitions, concerts, conferences, etc.), which may also be reserved for private receptions.

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Visitor information

Due to renovation work in the former convent, and until 11st December 2015, the archaeology and the modern art collection will be unavailable to the public. Until 18 October 2015, the Isenheim Altarpiece is on view in the Dominican, located about 200 metres from the Musée Unterlinden.

A unique event Celebrated works from the Musée Unterlinden’s collections are on view at the Dominican church until 18 October 2015

At the Dominican church in Colmar, a unique event presents Grünewald and Nicolas de Haguenau’s Isenheim Altarpiece (1512–1516) alongside Martin Schongauer’s masterpiece The Madonna of the Rose Bower (1473). Furthermore, this event provides an unprecedented opportunity to view all three painted works by Martin Schongauer held in Colmar at a single venue, since the Orlier Altarpiece (1470–1475) and the Altarpiece of the Dominicans (c. 1480) are also exhibited at the Dominican church during this period. Two painted panels by Lucas Cranach the Elder (Melancholy and The Crucifixion), sculptures from the Late Middle Ages and works in silver and gold (including the famous grouping known as the Trésor des Trois-Epis) round out the presentation. Lastly, two paintings from the museum’s modern art collection offer visitors the perspectives of two twentieth-century artists on sacred subjects: Veronica’s Veil by Alfred Manessier and Head of Christ by Otto Dix.

Musée Unterlinden

1 place Unterlinden – F-68000 Colmar www.musee-unterlinden.com Administration → Tel. +33 (0)3 89 20 15 50 // Fax +33 (0)3 89 41 26 22 [email protected]

Hours –> 18/10 : 9am – 6 pm Due to its renovation work and its expansion, the museum is closed : 16/02 -> 11/12 The Dominican church is closed : 19/10 -> 11/12

Admission fees €8 €6 Groups of 15 or more persons, senior citizens €5 Youths 12-18 and Students (under 30) €3 : Family per kid (12-18) Free : for children under 12

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From the 12nd of December 2015 The new musée Unterlinden

Hours All year : 10am – 6 pm. Closed on Tuesday Closed on: 1/01, 1/05, 1/11, 25/12

Admission fees €13 €11 Groups of 15 or more persons, senior citizens €8 Youths 12-18 and Students (under 30) Free : for children under 12

Booking www.musee-unterlinden.com

To book in the museum: a booking form is available on the website, it has to be sent to the address [email protected]. We kindly ask the groups led by a guide to use audio phones (to be booked before visiting). For any question, you can join us +33 (0)3 89 20 15 51.

To book for a guided tour: with a guide of tourism office, or to get any further information, you can reach the service of guided tours : + 33 (0)3 89 20 68 95 - Fax : + 33 (0)3 89 41 76 99 [email protected] www.ot-colmar.fr

Contacts presse

Marjorie Castoriadis – Agence Article Onze Tél. : 01 55 60 24 41 [email protected]

Marie-Hélène Siberlin, responsable communication, musée Unterlinden Tél. : 03 89 20 22 74 [email protected]

Delphine Sivignon, attachée de presse, Service Communication, Ville de Colmar Tél. 03 69 99 56 21 [email protected]

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