When the Museum Kunst der Westküste opened on 31 July 2009, no one could have imagined that it would become such a great success and experience this kind of overwhelming and continually increasing resonance among visitors. We have thought up something extra special for you this year! To mark our 10th birthday, we are presenting an excellent selection of masterworks from the exquisite Kunst der Westküste Collection – augmented by extraordinary pieces from important German and international museums and private collections.
The Museum Kunst der Westküste has devoted itself to art created between 1830 and 1930 in the magnificent landscape of the region along the coasts of Norway, Denmark, Germany and the Netherlands and dealing with the general theme of “sea and coast”. The artists of the collection, including the Norwegians Johan Christian Dahl and Edvard Munch, the Danish painters Anna Ancher and Peder Severin Krøyer, the Dutch artists Piet Mondrian and Jan Toorop and the Germans Max Liebermann and Otto Mueller, are inviting – so to speak – “guests” to Alkersum.
The exhibition presents a century of painting and, with it, a period of time in which extremely important artistic developments made their mark: whether Norwegian Romanticism, the newest realistic tendencies from the circle of Jozef Israëls or the many variations between Impressionism and Expressionism. In these paintings viewers can discover a new awareness of the coastal regions along the North Sea, the changes in the lives of fishermen and their families on land and at sea, the beach’s discovery around 1900 as a scene of social life around 1900 and also the importance of light in atmospheric interiors and in nature. These painters observed social and economic shifts with great sensitivity and strikingly documented them in their pictures.
Our “guests”, many of whom are being shown in Germany for the first time, are travelling here from all four countries. Precious loans are coming from lenders including Copenhagen’s Statens Museum for Kunst, SkagenMuseum, Berlin’s Nationalgalerie, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag, Hamburger Kunsthalle and the Barbara Alten-Stiftung in Ascona.
German Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier is serving as the exhibition’s patron.
It is supported by the Kulturstiftung des Landes Schleswig-Holstein and the Hollweg Stiftung, the Danish Embassy an the Norwegian Embassy.
Mobility partner: GP Joule
