PRESS RELEASE
ANNIVERSARY BEQUEST: OUTSTANDING PRIVATE COLLECTION OF WORKS BY HONORÉ DAUMIER IN THE STÄDEL MUSEUM
SBEQUEST MARKS THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STÄDELSCHER MUSEUMS-VEREIN / HONORÉ DAUMIER. THE HELLWIG COLLECTION – EXHIBITION STARTS 24 JANUARY IN THE STÄDEL MUSEUM
Starting 24 January 2024, the Städel Museum presents an exhibition of works by the French artist Honoré Daumier (1808–1879) to mark the 125th anniversary of the Städelscher Museums-Verein. The works are part of the outstanding private collection belonging to the Frankfurt patron of the arts, Hans-Jürgen Hellwig, that constitutes one of the most distinguished collections of Daumier outside France. The collection comprises a total of 4,200 lithographs and wood engravings, 19 drawings, 2 paintings and 36 bronze sculptures – many of which have never been publicly exhibited. Mirroring the full scope of Honoré Daumier’s artistic oeuvre, the private collection impresses with its unique quality. With the Städel Museum’s presentation of a selection of around 120 works from the Hellwig Collection, these works will be on view to the general public for the first time. The collection is to be donated in its entirety to the Städelscher Museums-Verein as an anniversary bequest, which in turn will entrust it as a permanent loan to the Städel Museum, where the collection will be preserved, researched and presented.
Honoré Daumier was one of France’s greatest draughtsmen. As a keen observer and controversial contemporary critic, he made a name for himself in the political circles of 19-th-century Paris, primarily through his caricatures which he produced for the illustrated periodicals La Caricature and Le Charivari. Both feared and loved, Daumier became the conscience of an epoch marked by radical social and political upheaval and profound change. His commitment to republican and liberal ideas, to the press and freedom of speech, his fervent interest in modern innovations and his critical, but also profoundly human view of the conditions of his time are impressively manifested in the exhibited works.
The exhibition in the Städel Museum is sponsored by the Städelscher Museums-Verein.
Director of the Städel Museum, Philipp Demandt, on the patron of the arts Hans-Jürgen Hellwig and on the significance of this bequest for the Städel Museum: “Hans-Jürgen Hellwig is a collector par excellence: passionate, persistent, enthusiastic and highly knowledgeable. We are delighted to present a selection of some 120 works from his outstanding Daumier collection here at the Städel Museum as our first exhibition of the new year. It is a show that offers sensual pleasure to all viewers, sharpens the mind and invites visitors to engage with the fundamental questions of our own time. As an anniversary gift to the Städelscher Museums-Verein and now on permanent loan to us, the Hellwig Collection is an invaluable addition to our own collection. As a result, the Städel Museum will permanently be established as one of the most significant centres of Daumier research in Germany. My heartfelt thanks go to Hans-Jürgen Hellwig, who through his work on the board of our museum’s association has for decades furthered the interests of the Städel Museum. With his exceptionally generous bequest, he has inscribed his name into the history of patronage for the Städel, which began with its founder Johann Friedrich Städel and has continued to this day in a variety of ways. It is through such commitment by the people of our city that this museum is sustained.”
The collector, Hans-Jürgen Hellwig, on the bequest: “A question that preoccupies many collectors is what will eventually become of their collection. For me, this question has never really arisen. In my more than sixty years of collecting, I have collected art for its own sake and not as an investment. And during the over half a century that I have been living in Frankfurt, I have personally incorporated the great tradition of this place: that its citizens see the cultural and social institutions of their city not only as a public responsibility, but also as their own. Margret Stuffmann, former Head of the Prints and Drawings Collection at the Städel Museum, accompanied me as a private collector with her expertise in 19th century French art. For considerable time, I had seen Honoré Daumier only as a caricaturist of political events. It was she who opened my eyes to the artist Daumier: to his artistic qualities, which lie in every single lithograph; to the spectrum of his work, which encompasses all themes of human existence; and to his rich knowledge of history and art. So it is also in gratitude for this that my collection is being passed on to the Städel Museum – as a bequest in my lifetime to the Städelscher Museums-Verein.”
Sylvia von Metzler, Chairwoman of the Board of Directors of the Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V. on the anniversary and the bequest: “This year, the Städelscher Museums-Verein is celebrating its 125th anniversary, hence also 125 years of commitment to the Städel Museum by Frankfurt’s citizens. Since its foundation on 27 June 1899, our first concern as a museum association has been to facilitate the Städel Museum in consolidating and expanding its collection – and, in addition, in important research projects or large-scale special exhibitions. For over thirty years, our board member Hans-Jürgen Hellwig has rendered outstanding services to the Städelscher Museums-Verein: with the commitment he has shown both to Frankfurt and to the Städel Museum, he continues to emphasise the value of individual civic engagement for the cohesion of society. We owe this exhibition and, above all, this unique bequest to his generosity. His impressive Daumier collection will now become the property of the Städelscher Museums-Verein Foundation on the occasion of our association’s anniversary, to be housed and preserved in the Städel Museum. A truly splendid occasion to celebrate!”
You can download the complete press release as a PDF here.
PRESS RELEASE
KOLLWITZ
20 MARCH TO 9 JUNE 2024
Exhibition annex
She was the most famous German woman artist of the twentieth century and nevertheless an exceptional phenomenon: Käthe Kollwitz (1867–1945). This spring the Städel Museum is devoting a major exhibition to her with a focus on the versatility, modernity and explosive power of her oeuvre. As an artist, Kollwitz followed paths of her own: She devoted herself not to painting, but above all printmaking and drawing—a decision as bold as it was determined— and there found her way to an independent pictorial language distinguished by incisive immediacy. In the hope of influencing society with her art, she explored existential human questions from a new perspective, also addressing troublesome topics. Not least of all for that reason, the artist and her work were politically instrumentalized in Germany after 1945—a reception still impacting our collective conception of her to this day.
This complex history of Käthe Kollwitz’s public reception as well as the Städel Museum’s own extensive holdings, enhanced by works from leading museums and private collections, form the point of departure for the exhibition. More than 110 striking works on paper, sculptures, and early paintings by the artist will be on view, including outstanding loans from the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett, the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Cologne, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart and elsewhere. These works will bear trenchant witness to Kollwitz’s decision in favour of graphic art as well as her nonconformity and love for experimentation. They will reveal the special nature of her themes, her formal vocabulary and her compositional dramaturgy. The show will moreover explore the charged relationship between aesthetics and politics in her oeuvre. Finally, an overview of how the artist was assessed on both sides of the inner-German border after 1945 will serve as a reflection on the power of cultural-political narratives.
Städel Museum director Philipp Demandt on the exhibition: “Apart from Käthe Kollwitz there is presumably no artist in Germany who attained as early and enduring a career with as much autonomy and determination. Her work made an impact as far afield as the U.S. and China—and was instrumentalized by many isms, both social and political, especially in post-war Germany. It accordingly appears all the more urgent to shed light on the German ‘Kollwitz myth’ and take an in-depth look at the lifework of this prominent woman artist of Classical Modernism. Especially our institution is called upon to undertake such a project: After all, the Städel Museum was already acquiring the art of Käthe Kollwitz during her lifetime, and since the purchase of the Goedeckemeyer Collection by the City of Frankfurt in 1964 has had a well-founded collection, above all of her works in the printmaking medium, to call its own. Awaiting our visitors this spring is an encounter with an artist whose oeuvre has lost nothing of its topicality to this day.”
Regina Freyberger, head of the Städel Museum’s Department of Prints and Drawings from 1800 and curator of the exhibition: “It is a huge challenge to remain completely unbiased because, consciously or unconsciously, we always carry our own conceptions and experiences with us. This is especially true with regard to an artist like Kollwitz who—thanks to school and street names, postage stamps and reproductions of her works—has been part of our everyday life for decades. That circumstance can easily obscure the fact that she was one of the most exceptional phenomena of Classical Modernist art. The work of Kollwitz is distinguished by unconventionality, a love for experimentation, and extraordinary persistence. Her refusal to produce art merely for her own sake led to her radical decision to work primarily in the graphic medium. She chose anti-bourgeois and ultimately also political issues and explored them artistically from new angles in an emphatic pictorial language that is today as gripping as ever. Like all great art, her art is timeless and timelessly relevant.”
Curator: Dr Regina Freyberger (Head of the Department of Prints and Drawings from 1800, Städel Museum)
Sponsored by: DZ BANK, Gemeinnützige Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain GmbH, Städelscher Museums-Verein e.V. with the Städelfreunde 1815
With additional support from: Georg und Franziska Speyer’sche Hochschulstiftung, Wolfgang Ratjen Stiftung, Aventis Foundation
Media partners: Süddeutsche Zeitung, ARTE, Verkehrsgesellschaft Frankfurt am Main
The detailed press information can be found here.
PRESS RELEASE
Muntean/Rosenblum. Mirror of Thoughts
Contemporary Art Collection
Press preview: Friday, 3 May 2024, 9.30 am
The two artists Markus Muntean (b. 1962) and Adi Rosenblum (b. 1962) have been working together since the 1990s. In their primarily painterly oeuvre, they impressively combine their identities to create one artistic signature. The Städel Museum is dedicating a solo exhibition in its Contemporary Art Collection to the artist duo, featuring a video work and eleven large-format paintings – including two new works – whose settings are places of transit: shopping centres, airport terminals, hotels, or offices. Immersed in their own thoughts, the young protagonists stare intently at their smartphones or gaze into the distance, are in motion or look out at the viewer with boredom or irritation. The work of Muntean/Rosenblum fluctuates between the influences of past art periods and contemporary pop-cultural phenomena. While their compositions are firmly anchored in the pictorial memory of art history, referencing well-known masterpieces from the Renaissance to Modernism, their figures are taken entirely from the present. They stem from an image archive established over many years, fed by photographs from lifestyle magazines, the Internet, and their own photo shoots. The artist duo uses this rich pool of images as a basis for creating peculiar scenes through the medium of painting: Set against anonymous urban backdrops, the dramatically arranged young people look like isolated extras in a contemporary stage play. Strange and at the same time familiar in their composition, the paintings reflect an atmosphere of lethargy and indifference. It is a painful yet liberating moment that marks the transition from adolescence to adulthood – a state of limbo. As if looking through a magnifying glass, Muntean/Rosenblum address central themes of our time: the ambivalence of human existence, the growing insecurity of the individual, and a pervasive sense of transience.
Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum: ‘With their interlinking of past and present, the works of the artist duo Muntean/Rosenblum fit perfectly into the Städel Museum’s collection, which spans more than 700 years of art. As a museum of pictures, we focus on painterly positions with regularly changing exhibitions in the Contemporary Art Collection and thus follow how painting expands, redefines itself, and breaks new ground across epochs. The art of Muntean/Rosenblum epitomises this borderline and tightrope walk of painting in contemporary art: drawing on photographs, they create surreal, collaged paintings at the interface between conceptual art and figurative genre painting.’
Svenja Grosser, Head of the Contemporary Art Collection and curator of the exhibition, adds: ‘Non-places underpin Muntean/Rosenblum’s working principle, which is primarily concerned with the possibilities of figurative painting. The artist duo’s decision to draw their motifs from an archive and to abandon their respective identities in favour of a joint signature already poses a challenge to painting, namely the lack of authorship. The concept of non-places is the logical extension of these considerations. As Muntean/Rosenblum take great care to deprive their works of a thematic statement, the viewer is challenged in his or her own perception: What does one want to see? How does one interpret the scene? What is real and what is not? The painting unfolds in this field of tension, between these poles, and is thus perhaps even closer to abstraction than to figuration.’
Curator: Svenja Grosser (Head of the Contemporary Art Collection, Städel Museum)
Project Coordinator: Maja Lisewski (assistant curator, Contemporary Art Collection, Städel Museum)
The detailed press information can be found here.
Press Release
NEW HEAD OF CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION
The Städel Museum has a new Head of its Collection of Contemporary Art: Svenja Grosser. At the Städel Museum since 2018, she has been responsible for the scholarly aspects of the collection as Deputy Head for the past three years and has curated numerous exhibitions—most recently “Victor Man. The Lines of Life” and “Ugo Rondinone. Sunrise. East.” Her research interests include contemporary painting, 20th and 21st century staged photography, museology, and gender theory. From 3 May 2024, she will present a new exhibition: “Muntean/Rosenblum. Mirror of Thoughts”.
“Since its foundation more than 200 years ago, the Städel Museum has continuously expanded its own collection, always with an eye to the respective artistic present. Today, art after 1945 with a focus on German painting in an international context can be experienced on more than 3,000 square metres in the Städel’s iconic Garden Halls. It is a particular pleasure for me to appoint Svenja Grosser as the new Head of the Contemporary Art Collection. She has distinguished herself through her outstanding expertise and her commitment to contemporary mediation. In future, she will continue to work intensively on the expansion of the collection and its public-orientated presentation”, comments Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum, on the appointment.
Svenja Grosser was born in Cologne in 1991 and studied Art History, German Philology, and Philosophy at the University of Bonn. She has been working at the Städel Museum since 2018. As project manager, she was jointly responsible for the new presentation of the Collection of Contemporary Art in 2020 and subsequently curated various exhibitions of contemporary artists, including Marc Brandenburg, Michael Müller, and Philipp Fürhofer. She has also written and edited numerous essays and publications to accompany these exhibitions. As co-initiator of the DigAMus Award-winning art and mediation space CLOSE UP and the digital application of the same name, Svenja Grosser is committed to a broad perception of and engagement with contemporary art. The event format “Städel Invites”, which she co-developed, offers the public the opportunity to meet contemporary artists and learn more about their motivations, ideas, and themes in dialogue. Grosser has already made several acquisitions for the Collection of Contemporary Art, including works by Louise Nevelson and Leiko Ikemura. She also regularly conceives thematic presentations of the collection within the permanent exhibition, placing works in new contexts.
“The Städel’s Collection of Contemporary Art is a place of inspiration and creativity for our visitors, as well as for me as head of the collection, which can provide answers to the questions of our time. In the coming years, I will be working on an exhibition programme with a feminist focus, as well as on thematic issues relating to contemporary painting and interventions across epochs. Current discourses and issues will be incorporated into the work with the collection, as will the wealth of knowledge gained from continuous observation of the contemporary art sector. I am delighted to have been appointed and to be able to continue to make this high-calibre collection accessible to a broad public,” emphasizes Svenja Grosser.
The detailed press information can be found here.
PRESS RELEASE
STÄDEL | WOMEN
WOMEN ARTISTS BETWEEN FRANKFURT AND PARIS AROUND 1900
10 JULY TO 27 OCTOBER 2024
Exhibition Annex
Modernism is unimaginable without the contribution of women artists. Not only well-known women painters and sculptors such as Louise Breslau, Ottilie W. Roederstein, and Marg Moll, but also many others successfully established themselves in the art world during the period around 1900—Erna Auerbach, Eugenie Bandell, Mathilde Battenberg, Marie Bertuch, Ida Gerhardi, Dora Hitz, Annie Stebler-Hopf, Elizabeth Nourse, and Louise Schmidt, to name just a few. In Paris and Frankfurt alike, they built international networks and supported one another. As influential teachers and art agents, some of them also shaped the history of the Städel Museum and Städelschule. It is time to dedicate a major exhibition to these women for the first time ever, and to discover them anew. From 10 July to 27 October 2024, the Städel Museum presents some 80 paintings and sculptures by altogether 26 women artists. Among them are significant artworks from renowned US and European museums and numerous works from private collections, which are exhibited for the first time. Previously unpublished archival materials accompany the works. Photographs and letters tell of international studio collectives, the strategic importance of professional artist associations, and successes, but also of continual efforts to gain recognition.
The exhibition features women artists who, with great independence and professionalism, asserted themselves in an art world dominated by male “artist geniuses”. From the perspective of their networks, a complex picture of women artists’ training and working circumstances in the modernist era emerges—from the struggles of the pioneers in 1880s Paris to the first female sculptors at the Städelschule (Städel art school) around 1900 to the self-determined young generation of women artists in the New Frankfurt of the 1920s and ’30s. Widely different stylistically, the works testify to the diversity of women’s artistic approaches, while also mirroring the radical social and aesthetic upheavals of the time. In their art the women painters and sculptors undertook critical investigations of their own existence as artists in a male-dominated environment. They self-confidently presented themselves in the circles of their female friends and companions and called traditional gender roles into question. By depicting the nude body, they also claimed their right to a motif complex previously reserved for men. In the process, they not only availed themselves of painting and drawing but also increasingly entered the territory of sculpture, which on account of its technical and material requirements and the physical strain it involved was considered the “most masculine” artistic medium.
Städel Museum director Philipp Demandt on the exhibition: “Käthe Kollwitz, Lotte Laserstein, Ottilie Roederstein: In recent years the Städel Museum has devoted major exhibitions to successful women artists. This summer we are presenting the Städel / Women to our public—26 modern women painters and sculptors in a single show. As the result of an extensive research project on the history of our institution and its collection, the Städel Museum has succeeded in reconstructing remarkable women artists’ biographies and locating lost works. We are thus closing gaps in the research while in turn opening doors for further study. This exhibition will fundamentally change our understanding of the situation of women artists around the turn of the last century and their influence on the development of modern art. I am deeply indebted to our lenders and sponsors, who once again have shown how essential their dedication is to the core aspects of our museum work.”
The exhibition curators Alexander Eiling, Eva-Maria Höllerer, and Aude-Line Schamschula: “Our exhibition concentrates on the artistic activities of women painters and sculptors between 1880 and the 1930s. We devote ourselves to three generations of women artists as well as the widely diverse interrelationships between the Frankfurt art world and the French art capital. Following a prologue exploring the circle of women artists around Ottilie Roederstein in Paris, the focus turns to the training situation for women at the Städel art school and Frankfurt’s new School of Arts and Crafts in the 1920s. We introduce these artists along with their individual achievements and highlight the widely branching networks with which they supported and encouraged one another. It is an exhibition about the self-empowerment of women artists who were no exception in their day.”
Curators, Städel Museum: Dr Alexander Eiling (Head of Modern Art), Eva-Maria Höllerer (Research Associate, Modern Art), Aude-Line Schamschula (Research Associate, Modern Art)
Supported by: Kulturfonds Frankfurt RheinMain gGmbH, Damengesellschaft of the Städelscher Museums-Vereins e. V., Dr. Marschner Stiftung, Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung, CATRICE
Media Partner: FAZ
Cultural partner: hr2-kultur
The detailed press information can be found here.
ANNIVERSARY ACQUISITION: IMPORTANT BRONZE SCULPTURE BY REMBRANDT BUGATTI AT THE STÄDEL
ACQUISITION OF THE “DEVOURING LION” FROM THE COLLECTION OF ALAIN DELON ON THE OCCASION OF THE 125TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE STÄDELSCHER MUSEUMS-VEREIN
The Städelscher Museums-Verein is celebrating its 125th anniversary with a major acquisition: the bronze sculpture Devouring Lion by Rembrandt Bugatti (1884–1916). With this 1908 figure, the Städel Museum in Frankfurt am Main has acquired a major work by the Italian artist and is now one of only two museums in Germany to be able to present its public with a bronze by this outstanding sculptor. The sculpture was purchased by the Städelscher Museums-Verein with funds from Volker Westerborg and private donations. The Devouring Lion previously belonged to the art collection of the actor Alain Delon, who owns one of the world's most important collections of works by Rembrandt Bugatti. Sculptures by the artist were last shown at the Städel Museum in 2020 in the special exhibition “En Passant. Impressionism in Sculpture”. On permanent loan from the patrons’ association, the anniversary acquisition is currently on view in the Städel Museum’s collection presentation of “Modern Art” and can be seen in the Impressionist Hall in dialogue with sculptures by Edgar Degas and Auguste Rodin. The Städelscher Museums-Verein was founded on 27 June 1899, making it one of the oldest and largest patrons’ associations of a German museum today.
“Rembrandt Bugatti is one of the greatest sculptural talents in the history of art. By the time of his untimely death at the age of thirty-one, he had created an unparalleled oeuvre of some 300 sculptures, of which the Devouring Lion from the private collection of Alain Delon is one of the most important. As always, in a single working process of just a few hours, Bugatti translated the essence, appearance and tension of his model into a sculptural work that seems to break down and dissolve the boundaries between object and abstraction. The Devouring Lion is a milestone in early twentieth-century sculpture and an extraordinary addition to the Städel Museum. I congratulate the Städelscher Museums-Verein on this special anniversary acquisition. I would also like to thank Véronique Fromanger, Paris, and Edward Horswell, Sladmore Gallery, London, for their selfless support of this extraordinary acquisition”, says Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum.
“For 125 years, the Städelscher Museums-Verein has been supporting the Städel Museum with acquisitions to complement its collection, with the realisation of special exhibitions that attract the public, and with the financing of research and restoration projects. With the purchase of this outstanding sculpture by Rembrandt Bugatti on the occasion of our anniversary, we can once again confirm our mission of support. As chairwoman, I would like to thank our more than 10,000 members and art lovers from the bottom of my heart for their commitment. They are a prime example of what civic commitment to the Städel Museum can look like”, says Sylvia von Metzler, Chairwoman of the Städelscher Museums-Verein.
The acquisition was made possible in large part by a generous donation from Volker Westerborg (1940–2022) to both the Städel Museum and the Städelscher Museums-Verein. Westerborg’s support focussed on works by artists who lost their lives in the First World War and whose memory should serve as a reminder of the consequences of the war. Westerborg’s support had previously enabled the purchase of Wilhelm Morgner’s Astral Composition VI, 1912. With a major work by Rembrandt Bugatti, who committed suicide in 1916 under the impact of the First World War, the Städel Museum is once again honouring Westerborg’s patronage.
You can read the full press release here.
PRESS RELEASE
PARTNERSHIP AGREED: STÄDEL AND FRESENIUS
The Städel Museum and Fresenius have entered into a partnership for the next two years, reaffirming their shared commitment to society. As Germany's oldest museum foundation, the Städel is supported by companies, foundations, private sponsors, the City of Frankfurt and the State of Hesse. The Städel Museum sees itself as a place of encounter, exchange and dialogue with the past, present and future. With a collection spanning over 700 years of art, major special exhibitions, an educational programme and digital offerings, it provides unique access to art across generations, epochs and styles – in the spirit of its founder Johann Friedrich Städel. For the healthcare company Fresenius, people’s health forms the focus of all activities. It has been committed to saving lives and improving people's quality of life and health for more than 100 years now. For Fresenius, the partnership with the Städel Museum is part of its social responsibility and a sign of its commitment to the Rhine-Main region. It was here that the company was founded, its headquarters are still located today and many of its employees live. With this partnership, Fresenius demonstrates its commitment to Frankfurt and the Rhine-Main region.
Philipp Demandt, Director of the Städel Museum, commented on the start of the partnership with Fresenius: "More than 200 years ago, our founder Johann Friedrich Städel had the visionary idea of donating his art collection to the public and thus founded the Städel Museum. To this day, his foresight and generosity remain a role model for many. Our partners and sponsors are also committed to this social cause by supporting their Städel. As our new corporate partner, Fresenius joins us in this special commitment. As a museum, we have a social mission: to impart knowledge and to enable people to experience art in many different ways. I am delighted that we have found a partner in Fresenius to support us in this endeavour.
Michael Sen, CEO of Fresenius, said of the partnership: “Fostering and funding the arts is an essential requirement for a diverse, open-minded and pluralistic society. Institutions like the Städel Museum ensure that everyone can access world-class works of art – a task that is also close to Fresenius’ heart. ‘Committed to Life’ – improving people’s lives – that is our claim. Both art and the Städel Museum make an important contribution to this. I am delighted to be working with such an outstanding cultural institution.” As a new corporate partner, Fresenius will support the work of the Städel Museum from August 2024. Together with the Städel Museum, Fresenius will also develop event formats that give employees unique access to the collection, which ranges from art from the Late Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque period and Classical Modernism to the present day.
PARTNERSHIP AGREED: STÄDEL AND FRESENIUS
Location: Städel Museum, Schaumainkai 63, 60596 Frankfurt am Main
Information: staedelmuseum.de/en
Visitor services and guided tours: +49(0)69-605098-200, info@staedelmuseum.de
Opening hours: Tue, Wed, Fri, Sat, Sun + holidays 10.00 am – 6.00 pm, Thu 10.00 am – 9.00 pm
Special opening hours: Up-to-date information on special opening hours at staedelmuseum.de/en
@staedelmuseum on social media: #staedel on Instagram / YouTube / TikTok / Facebook / LinkedIn / STÄDEL STORIES: For more stories and background information on the collection and the special exhibitions, read, watch and listen to stories.staedelmuseum.de (in German)
PRESS RELEASE
REMBRANDT’S AMSTERDAM
GOLDEN TIMES?
27 NOVEMBER 2024 TO 23 MARCH 2025
Exhibition Annex
Amsterdam – one city with many faces. In the 17th century, Amsterdam was the metropolis in Europe. The economy and trade were booming, the population rapidly increased, and the arts and sciences flourished. An influential civic society shaped the city’s fortunes and glorified itself in splendid group portraits made by the greatest Dutch painters of the age, foremost among them Rembrandt, alongside Jacob Backer, Ferdinand Bol, Govert Flinck, Bartholomeus van der Helst, Nicolaes Eliasz. Pickenoy, and Jan Victors. From 27 November 2024 to 23 March 2025, the Städel Museum, in collaboration with the Amsterdam Museum, showcases portraits from the Rembrandt period in a major exhibition, with the magnificent group portraits of the Amsterdam Museum taking centre stage. These works are rarely lent out, and this is the first large-scale presentation of them in Germany. Around 100 paintings, sculptures and prints and cultural and historical artefacts from other prominent Dutch and international museums will be on view in Frankfurt, including masterpieces from the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Koninklijk Museum van Schone Kunsten in Antwerp and the Muzeum Narodowe in Warsaw. The exhibition will also feature remarkable works by Rembrandt and his contemporaries from the Städel Museum’s own collection.
“Rembrandt’s Amsterdam. Golden Times?” is sponsored by ING Germany, the Städelscher Museums-Verein e. V., the Dagmar-Westberg-Stiftung and the Fontana Stiftung, with additional support from the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung.
The exhibition challenges the traditional view of the 17th century as the Netherlands’ ‘Golden Age’. The economic and cultural prosperity of the Rembrandt era was bolstered by the aggressive trade policies of the United Netherlands, which relied on the establishment of colonies in Asia and South America as well as the enslavement and exploitation of people. As wars, poverty and religious and political persecution swept across Europe, migration to the Dutch Republic – particularly Amsterdam – steadily increased. A robust labour market and an unparalleled degree of religious tolerance attracted many in search for a better and freer life, a goal that some, but by no means all, achieved. It was primarily Amsterdam’s urban elite that commissioned lavish portraits of themselves: members of the civic guards and the craft and trade guilds, as well as the governors of the social institutions supported by civic society. While showcasing these prestigious paintings, the exhibition at the Städel Museum also illuminates the experiences of other social groups. Visitors will encounter images and narratives reflecting a pluralistic Amsterdam society, which tell of wealth and poverty, joy and hardship, power and powerlessness.
In the words of Städel Director Philipp Demandt: “With this exhibition, we are bringing Rembrandt’s Amsterdam to the Städel Museum. By taking a critical look at the realities of 17th-century Amsterdam, we engage with the ongoing discourse surrounding the re-evaluation of the Netherlands’ ‘Golden Age’. The masterpieces of Rembrandt and his renowned contemporaries depict a city in flux, undergoing profound economic and social transformations. No other museum in the world houses as many group portraits from this period as the Amsterdam Museum. At the Städel Museum, we are excited to unite these works with other international loans and our own exceptional collection of paintings and prints by Rembrandt, which our museum’s founder already collected with passion. We extend our heartfelt thanks to all the lenders and sponsors who have generously supported our exhibition. This ambitious project would not have been possible without their commitment.”
“Amsterdam – Europe’s vibrant metropolis, a timeless favourite among travellers and a haven of art and culture. This holds true today just as it did during Rembrandt’s era. During the life of the renowned painter, the city’s economy and culture flourished on an unprecedented scale. This exhibition explores both the ‘Golden Age’ and its darker aspects. Following the 2021 Rembrandt exhibition at the Städel Museum that focused on the peerless artist himself, we now invite visitors to immerse themselves in the city where he lived and worked with many other pioneering artists. As ING Germany, we are delighted to support this exhibition, making Dutch art once again accessible to the Städel’s visitors”, says Nick Jue, Chairman of the Board, ING Germany.
As Sylvia von Metzler, Chairwoman of the Board of the Städelscher Museums-Verein e. V., comments about the exhibition: “The exhibition ‘Rembrandt’s Amsterdam’ is the highlight of our anniversary year. For 125 years, we have been supporting the Städel Museum in all its endeavours, and the Städel’s own works by Rembrandt featured in this exhibition reflect our extraordinary commitment. We are thrilled that this great Dutch artist is once again at the centre of a major exhibition, alongside many of his contemporaries. We will experience Rembrandt’s Amsterdam in a new and surprising light.”
Daniel Hoster, Chairman of the Board of the Dagmar-Westberg-Stiftung, points out that “Our founder, Dagmar Westberg, was a devoted patron and friend of the Städel Museum. She had a lifelong passion for the art of the Old Masters, which also informed the donations she made to the museum’s collection. Our support of the exhibition ‘Rembrandt’s Amsterdam’ reflects her desire to share her fascination with Old Master painting with a broad audience and reveal the stories behind the works of art. The Dagmar Westberg Foundation wishes the Städel Museum great success and many interested visitors.”
“The Dutch group portrait emerged primarily in Amsterdam. It is probably the most striking example of Dutch art from Rembrandt’s time. It can be attributed to the unique conditions of Amsterdam, a mercantile city with a distinctly bourgeois and Protestant character. During this time, the city transformed into a booming global trade hub, where the ruling elite celebrated their status and civic commitment through prestigious paintings created by leading artists. While the notion of the 17th century as a ‘Golden Age’ has long been uncritically accepted in the Netherlands—partly due to these artworks—this perspective has begun to erode in recent years. Our exhibition addresses this shift by also highlighting those individuals who were deemed ‘unworthy of portrayal’ at the time and thus left little mark on the tradition of portraiture. The quest to uncover their stories is both overdue and valuable, as it will enhance our understanding of Rembrandt’s Amsterdam,’ explains Jochen Sander, curator of the exhibition, Deputy Director and Head of the collections of Dutch, Flemish and German painting before 1800
Curator: Prof. Dr Jochen Sander (Deputy Director and Head of German, Dutch and Flemish Paintings before 1800, Städel Museum)
Supported by: ING Deutschland, Städelscher Museums-Verein e. V., Fontana Stiftung
With additional support from: Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung
The detailed press information can be found here.
PRESS RELEASE
FANTASY AND PASSION: DRAWING FROM CARRACCI TO BERNINI
10 OCTOBER 2024 – 12 JANUARY 2025
Städel Museum, Exhibition Hall of the Department of Prints and Drawings
Press Preview: Wednesday 9 October 2024, 11 am
The Städel Museum presents the great masters of Italian Baroque draughtsmanship. For the brothers Agostino and Annibale Carracci, Guercino, Stefano della Bella and Gian Lorenzo Bernini, drawing was a central component of their artistic work. In their drawings, they not only laid the foundations for their paintings, sculptures or prints, but also demonstrated the independence of the medium. Executed with pen and brush or black or red chalk, the sheets are sketches, studies or precisely rendered individual works. They impress with their sweeping lines, their dramatic chiaroscuro and their extraordinary expressiveness. From 10 October 2024 to 12 January 2025, the Städel Museum will be showing 90 of these remarkable Italian Baroque drawings from its own collection in an exhibition parallel to the Frankfurt Book Fair with Italy as this year’s Guest of Honour, inviting visitors to an intimate encounter with the artistic drawings of a bygone era.
The scholarly analysis of the drawings was made possible by the generous support of the Gabriele Busch-Hauck Foundation in Frankfurt. This multi-year research project has produced a wealth of new information on individual artists and their working methods, the subjects depicted and the techniques used, as well as on contemporary and later collectors.
The 17th century was a time of change in Italy. Baroque art emphasized movement and dynamism, contrasts and the play of light and shadow. These characteristics can be seen not only in the paintings and sculptures, but also in the drawings of the period. The artists studied individual motifs, figural groups, postures, draperies and sequences of movement. They drew from nature, developed complex pictorial narratives and created designs for large-format works. The emotional spectrum of their depictions ranges from delicate and introspective to ecstatic, expressive and sometimes cruel. The works on paper were often the basis for paintings, sculptures or prints and refer to the exchange between artists and patrons. They are therefore not only an expression of individual artistic creativity, but also a reflection of larger cultural contexts.
Read the full press release here
PRESS RELEASE
EXHIBITION PREVIEW 2025 AND OUTLOOK 2026
A PHOTOGRAPHIC JOURNEY TO 19TH-CENTURY FRANKFURT, THE FIRST COMPREHENSIVE RETROSPECTIVE DEVOTED TO ANNEGRET SOLTAU, THE DRAUGHTSMAN WERNER TÜBKE, ASTA GRÖTING IN THE CONTEMPORARY ART COLLECTION, A MAJOR AUTUMN EXHIBITION ON CARL SCHUCH AND FRENCH MODERNISM, MAX BECKMANN ON PAPER AND, IN THE SPRING OF 2026, MONET ON THE NORMANDY COAST. THE DISCOVERY OF ÉTRETAT
Read the full press release here.