Image: Von der Heydt Museum, Wuppertal
The Von der Heydt-Museum in Wuppertal is presenting ‘Museum A bis Z. Von Anfang bis Zukunft’, an exhibition that uses the institution’s collection to examine how museums collect, preserve, research, display and interpret art. The presentation also addresses diversity, digitisation, decolonisation and participation, and is on view at the Von der Heydt-Museum through 10 January 2027.
Rather than focusing solely on celebrated works, the exhibition presents the museum as an institution shaped by changing responsibilities and historical circumstances. It traces a path from the museum’s founding period through local and global collecting, colonial contexts, provenance research and restitution, before considering possible directions for its future. The presentation supplements the museum’s reconfigured permanent display, ‘Zeiten und Räume. Klassiker der Sammlung’.
The exhibition is intended to reveal the breadth of the Von der Heydt-Museum’s holdings, including less familiar areas such as decorative arts and objects from outside Europe. Textiles from present-day Indonesia and non-European sculptures are shown alongside views of Wuppertal by artists including Adolf Erbslöh, Carl Grossberg, Erich Heckel, Oskar Schlemmer and Marie Luise Oertel. Paintings by Ottilie W. Roederstein, Emmy Klinker and Paula Modersohn-Becker demonstrate the range of painting in the collection, while craft objects foreground different materials and techniques.
The museum says provenance research is a central focus. One case study is Max Liebermann’s ‘Bildnis Felix Benjamin’ (1921), which was restituted in 2023 to the heirs of Felix Benjamin, who was persecuted and murdered by the Nazis, and subsequently reacquired by the museum. The work is used to explain the processes and significance of provenance research, restitution and the subsequent return of a work to the collection.
Accessibility is another key element. A tactile model of Max Pechstein’s painting ‘Der Sohn des Künstlers auf dem Sofa’ has been created to provide blind and visually impaired visitors with a more accessible route into the work. The model is accompanied by a specially developed programme. The museum is also extending access in the digital sphere through multimedia guides for its collection presentations, available in German, English and Turkish, with selected works explained online and on site.
A related five-part discussion series, ‘Museen im Dienste der Kunst?’, considers the role of museums in the past, present and future. The programme includes an opening conversation between Rainer Stamm, director of the Osthaus Museum Hagen and head of the Museums and Archives department, and Roland Mönig, director of the Von der Heydt-Museum. Later sessions address audience engagement, the presentation of object biographies, collecting and changes in art. The talks take place at the Brennscheidt-Forum in Wuppertal, with free admission. The exhibition and series also look ahead to the Von der Heydt-Museum’s 125th anniversary in 2027.
The museum’s collection includes approximately 2,300 paintings, 700 sculptures and 30,000 works on paper. Its digital collection currently offers access to a selection of more than 4,000 works, with further expansion planned. ‘Museum A bis Z. Von Anfang bis Zukunft’ remains on view in Wuppertal until 10 January 2027.
