THE LENBACHHAUS THE LENBACHHAUS 09 THE 19 TH CENTURY 47 THE BLUE RIDER 75 NEW OBJECTIVITY 129 JOSEPH BEUYS 141 ART AFTER 1945 153 ANNEX 206 PREFACE Roughly half of the museum’s total floor space is entirely new construction; all other sections have undergone thorough renovation. The exhibition and event spaces now meet all the facilities and amenities a modern museum operation requires. In addition to the historic Lenbach rooms, visitors will once again find our stunning collection of the art of the Blue Rider group (Der Blaue Reiter) as well as the works of nineteenth- century Munich painters. This division of our collection is 6 now enhanced by landscapes from the Christoph Heilmann 7 Foundation, whose generosity enables us to present works of the Dresden Romantics, the Berlin and Düsseldorf schools, and the influential Barbizon school of painting as well. With the acquisition of Joseph Beuys’s show your wound in 1979, the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus resolutely opened its collection-building efforts to the art of the present. In 2012, Since reopening in May 2013, the Lenbachhaus presents itself in we were able to purchase another environment by Beuys, before a striking new guise. After four years of construction, the building departing from camp I. Lothar Schirmer, moreover, has donated appears transformed on the outside as much as the inside; the a wonderful group of eminent sculptures Beuys created between most conspicuous new feature is the façade clad in brass-colored 1948 and 1972 to the Lenbachhaus. With these additions, the metal. The three-wing complex as it stood after an extension museum’s collection has gained a new highlight; the exceptional was added to Lenbach’s studio building and villa on occasion artist’s art has been installed in Lenbach’s former studio. of the establishment of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus The collection of art after 1945 has been substantively (Municipal Gallery in the Lenbachhaus) in 1929 remained enlarged; in particular, both the museum itself and the KiCo virtually unchanged. Several eminent works of sculpture now Foundation have acquired several recent positions. In close grace the wonderful historic garden. The new approach to the collaboration with two dedicated collectors, we have been able gallery via the museum plaza facing the Propylaea presents to make selective purchases over the past fifteen years that the new wing by Foster + Partners from its most splendid side. complement our own holdings perfectly. The building is open, via the terrace, toward Klenze’s classicist A distinctive feature of the Lenbachhaus’s collections ensemble around Königsplatz, with the exhibition rooms on throughout all departments are the artists’ rooms, most of which the upper floors sheltered by the closed façade and Lenbach’s were designed specifically for the museum. No less stimulating studio wing, designed by Gabriel von Seidl, adjoining on the are the dialogues between different artistic positions that meet right-hand side. in the galleries. The museum’s interior, too, presents an exciting dialogue In presenting the art of the nineteenth century and between old and new architecture. Lenbach’s historic villa, especially the paintings of the Blue Rider, it was once again which had been wedged between adjacent former neighboring important to us to show these works not in what is known as buildings, has been unstuck and now emerges within the museum a White Cube — a bare room with whitewashed walls — but on as an exhibit in its own right. walls painted in carefully selected colors and treated with special materials and techniques. The Lenbachhaus first presented its Blue Rider collection on colorful walls in 1992. This decision, which was at the time felt to be a radical departure from the practice of showing modernist works on white walls, was based HE on the observation that Franz Marc and Wassily Kandinsky, T designing the first Blue Rider show, had deliberately exhibited the group’s art before a dark — presumably black — wallpaper backdrop. Since then, we have frequently returned to the 8 question of the adequate background for these pictures and the 9 right color for the walls around them. Most recently, we invited artists — Franz Ackermann, Katharina Grosse, Olafur Eliasson, and Thomas Demand — to design the galleries for Franz Marc, Alexej Jawlensky, Wassily Kandinsky, and August Macke. After learning from these past experiences, the Lenbachhaus has yet again redesigned the exhibition of this division of its collection. We believe that the new presentation in the beautifully proportioned spaces Foster + Partner architects have created will afford all visitors to our galleries exciting and richly diverse visual experiences. Moreover, the new Lenbachhaus is a crucial LENBACHHAUS building block toward the completion of Munich’s Kunstareal, a neighborhood that brings museums, universities, and galleries together in an art and education hub of global stature. Helmut Friedel, Matthias Mühling HISTORY OF THE MUSEUM The Lenbachhaus The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus was established in the 11 former residence of the artist Franz von Lenbach in 1929. When his widow, Lolo von Lenbach, offered to sell the property to the City of Munich in 1924, her proposal included the donation of the building’s furnishings and interior decorations as well as numerous works by Lenbach. The acquisition of the Lenbachhaus made it possible to fulfill the desire for a municipal art museum, which had been widely felt for many years. The city’s art holdings, which were scattered across various municipal institutions, were united; municipal funding was used to expand the collection. To create enough floor space for the collection and exhibitions, the architect Hans Grässel added an extension to Lenbach’s studio and residence building, creating a three-wing complex. On May 1, 1929, the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus opened its doors to the public. Its founding director, Eberhard Hanfstaengl, set the goal of bringing together paintings from Munich and contemporary art to build a municipal art collection of European stature, but his plans were thwarted only a few years later when Hitler rose to power in 1933. In 1944 – 45, the museum suffered heavy damage, and large parts of the building were destroyed. After a period of rapid reconstruction, the first shows of the postwar era were held in 1947. Despite the museum’s limited funding, new works, especially by contemporary artists, were added to the collection. On the occasion of her eightieth birthday on February 19, 1957, Gabriele Münter made an extraordinarily generous donation to the Städtische Galerie, giving the art of the Blue Rider, including eminent works by the artist herself, Wassily Kandinsky, her companion of many years, and their artist friends The Lenbachhaus 12 13 Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys 1980 posing in front of Lenbach’s Self-Portrait with His Family Photograph: Angela Neuke to the museum. The Lenbachhaus, which had been a municipal institution that primarily catered to local audiences, became a central venue for classical modernism and a world-class museum. In 1965, Bernhard Koehler Jr. donated his valuable holdings of paintings by Franz Marc and August Macke to the Lenbachhaus. An extension built between 1969 and 1972 added the necessary The Lenbachhaus floor space for an adequate presentation. Four years after Gabriele Münter’s death, in 1966, the Gabriele Münter and 14 Johannes Eichner Foundation, which holds considerable archival 15 materials concerning the art of the Blue Rider group, became operative. In 1971, the Lenbachhaus also acquired the Kubin archive of the Hamburg-based collector Kurt Otte. Over the years, acquisition funding provided by the city and the Gabriele Münter and Johannes Eichner Foundation enabled us to purchase eminent works by Paul Klee and by major representatives of the Blue Rider and other artists in its orbit. The collection now includes extensive holdings of outstanding works by the leading Blue Rider artists — first and foremost, Wassily Kandinsky and Gabriele Münter, but also Alexej Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Franz Marc, and August Macke. Since the 1970s, the museum has held exhibitions that in- troduced audiences to central tendencies and protagonists of the international contemporary art scene. The purchase of Joseph Beuys’s show your wound in 1979 paved the way for a redefinition of the Lenbachhaus’s acquisition policies, after which the museum started adding national and international contemporary art to its collections. Since 1994, the Kunstbau, an exhibition space located beneath Königsplatz square, in the immediate vicinity of the artist’s villa, has hosted large special exhibitions. Planning for the refurbishment and redesign of the Lenbachhaus and the addition of a new wing began in 2003, and work on the site commenced in the spring of 2009. After a Europe-wide selection process, Foster + Partners architects were commissioned to develop a rehabilitation and redesign concept to create state-of-the-art facilities for an internationally renowned View of Richard-Wagner-Straße museum drawing large numbers of visitors. The renovated gallery 2013 with its new extension was inaugurated in May 2013. FRANZ VON LENBACH PRINCE OF PAINTERS “ I INTEND to BUILD The Lenbachhaus A PALACE FOR MYSELF THAT WILL ECLIPSE 16 EVERYTHING THE 17 WORLD HAS SEEN; IT WILL LINK THE POWER CENTERS OF EURO- PEAN HIGH ART to THE WORLD OF THE PRESENT. ” Franz von Lenbach 1885 Franz von Lenbach Self Portrait with His Wife and Daughters 1903 Franz von Lenbach (1836 – 1904) was a central protagonist in the late-nineteenth-century rise of Munich as an almost mythical center of the arts. Born to a lower-middle-class family, he was trained at the Academy of Fine Arts; after 1870, he became a celebrated portraitist and honed his image as an urbane artist and virtuoso of his craft. As an outward reflection of his great artistic The Lenbachhaus and financial success, he carefully crafted his public persona: next to his private residence, he built a magnificent studio that 18 was open to the public; visitors would find him standing at the 19 easel dressed in an elegant suit.