Image: Museum Ritter (Waldenbuch), Bonn
Museum Ritter in Waldenbuch will present ‘Heavy Metal. Works from the Marli Hoppe-Ritter Collection’, an exhibition devoted to the use of metal in constructive and concrete art. The exhibition is scheduled to run from 17 May to 27 September 2026 at Museum Ritter, with an opening on 16 May at 5pm.
Bringing together around 50 works, the exhibition examines metal as both a material and a source of formal possibilities. According to the museum, the presentation spans the history of constructive art over the past 70 years, focusing on how artists have responded to the different properties of steel, aluminium, copper and iron. These include variations in colour, texture, strength and elasticity, as well as the many ways metal can be cut, shaped, assembled and treated.
The works range from objects with a substantial physical presence to delicate, open structures. Some surfaces are covered with rust, while others use polished or reflective metal to activate light and shadow. The exhibition is intended to show how materially diverse metal-based art can be, even within a field associated with geometric order and planned construction.
Heinz Mack’s untitled light relief from 1958 marks the chronological starting point of the display. The aluminium work is described by the museum as an example of art that changes perceptually through active viewing, appearing to shimmer and flow as the observer moves. Martin Willing’s works, made from high-strength materials including titanium and Weldural, address movement through the specific vibration behaviour of metal.
Other sections focus on industrially manufactured materials and their transformation into artistic structures. Nails and reinforcing steel appear in serial arrangements by artists including Günther Uecker, Manuela Tirler and François Morellet. The museum describes the tension in these works as arising from the recognition of familiar construction materials and their integration into new formal contexts. Kirstin Arndt and Jim Lambie, meanwhile, exploit the malleability of aluminium sheet in brightly coloured reliefs. Additional artists represented include Sonja Alhäuser, Getulio Alviani, César Andrade, Bernard Aubertin, David Bill, Hartmut Böhm, Sébastien de Ganay, Madeleine Dietz, Henrik Eiben, Imi Knoebel, Christian Megert, Gerold Miller, Otto Piene, Thomas Rentmeister, Heiner Thiel, Wolfram Ullrich and Beat Zoderer.
Museum Ritter is operated by the Marli Hoppe-Ritter Foundation for the Promotion of Art, a charitable foundation based at the museum’s address on Alfred-Ritter-Straße in Waldenbuch. The institution’s collection is centred on geometric-abstraction and constructive art, and its programme includes both collection presentations and exhibitions devoted to individual artists and thematic developments. ‘Heavy Metal’ will be shown concurrently with ‘Marguerite Hersberger. In-Between Spaces’, which also runs from 17 May to 27 September 2026.
The museum’s September newsletter lists free public exhibition tours on Sundays from 3.30 to 4.30pm, with the final tour scheduled for 27 September. It also announces an ‘Art & Music’ programme on 20 September, when the Jazzmates will perform compositions associated with selected works in the exhibitions. Museum Ritter is open Tuesday to Sunday, from 11am to 6pm.
