Reinhard Ernst collects exclusively abstract art. His collection therefore has a rare and clear profile. As a result, the mre is one of the few museums in the world dedicated exclusively to abstract art. Many of the artists in the Reinhard Ernst Collection are among the most important of the 20th and 21st centuries. They have had a decisive influence on the central trends of abstraction. The museum pays tribute to their work in its exhibitions, two of which are always on show at the same time.
The masterful paintings and sculptures were created just a few decades ago - the art in the Reinhard Ernst Collection is only around 75 years old. The works thus bear witness to our time and artistically address contemporary themes.
Because this present is constantly changing, the collection presentations are regularly renewed. Abstract art is shown across temporal, geographical and reception-historical boundaries: from its beginnings in the 1950s to the present day. From Tokyo to New York to Wiesbaden. From renowned to today's rather unknown positions.
The collection presentations, which are renewed every two years, present different aspects of the Reinhard Ernst Collection. In the annually changing special exhibitions, the museum shows historical positions as well as contemporary artists.
Museum Reinhard Ernst, view of the exhibition "Color is everything!" © Frank Marburger, Klaus Helbig
It is the central concern of the Museum Reinhard Ernst to make visitors understand what the "Adventure of Abstract Art" actually means. It is important to explain how profoundly ideas about art and the world have changed in the second half of the 20th century.
In this sense, the Museum Reinhard Ernst sees itself as an international center for abstract art. Abstraction to marvel at, learn and experience. And not only with your eyes when visiting the exhibitions, but also with your whole body and your own creativity during the rich educational program.
"Color is everything!" is the title of the opening exhibition at the Reinhard Ernst Museum. For the first time, it shows a selection of the Wiesbaden entrepreneur's top-class private collection in the museum architecture designed by Fumihiko Maki. The leitmotif and starting point of this exhibition is the intensive examination of color. It is the great love of museum founder Reinhard Ernst. Abstract painting from Europe, the USA and Japan from the last 75 years is at the center of the presentation. Although the assembled artists worked at different times and in different places, they all demonstrate a radically new understanding of painting. 60 masterpieces from the Reinhard Ernst Collection illustrate the groundbreaking changes in painting. Large-format works by Friedel Dzubas, K.O. Götz, Toshimitsu Imai, Helen Frankenthaler, Robert Motherwell, Judit Reigl, Tōkō Shinoda, Pierre Soulages, Frank Stella and Fred Thieler, among others, will be on display in the elegant rooms of Fumihiko Maki.
Museum Reinhard Ernst, view of the exhibition "Color is everything!" © Frank Marburger, Klaus Helbig
The first special exhibition "Fumihiko Maki - Maki and Associates: Towards Humane Architecture" is dedicated to the architect born in 1928. The first special exhibition Fumihiko Maki - Maki and Associates: Towards Humane Architecture is dedicated to the architect, who was born in 1928. It shows models of some of the Pritzker Prize winner's outstanding projects, including Tower 4 World Trade Center in New York. The museum buildings are also presented, including the Aga Khan Museum in Toronto (completed in 2014), the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in California (1993) and the National Museum of Modern Art Kyoto (1986). The Museum Reinhard Ernst is the tenth museum building in this high-caliber series. In 1985, on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of his architecture firm Maki and Associates, Fumihiko Maki formulated his dream of realizing ten museums. Today, almost 40 years later, we congratulate him with this exhibition, which tells the "making of" of the mre as the tenth museum and at the same time presents Maki's other art buildings.
A wide variety of cultural and educational institutions in Japan, China, India, Canada and the USA bear witness to Maki's mastery in this field: from the Japanese National Museum of Art in Kyoto in 1986, to the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum in St. Louis, USA, in 2006, to the Indian Bihar Museum in Patna in 2017.
The architectural language and the architectural principles of Maki are illustrated on the basis of the history and special features of the mre and its "museum siblings". Culture, education and community describe the ethical and social guiding principles that Fumihiko Maki and Reinhard Ernst shared and which united them as friends for a long time.
June 23, 2024 to February 16, 2025
www.museum-re.de
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