Brandenburgisches Landesmuseum für moderne Kunst (BLMK)

Description

The Brandenburg State Museum for Modern Art (BLMK) has linked museum sites in Frankfurt (Oder) and Cottbus since 2017, thereby presenting the statewide collection of modern and contemporary art.

The museum was formed by the merger of the Kunstmuseum Dieselkraftwerk Cottbus and the Museum Junge Kunst in Frankfurt (Oder). Today the BLMK operates three exhibition venues: the Dieselkraftwerk in Cottbus and the Rathaushalle and the Packhof in Frankfurt (Oder).

The collection comprises more than 45,000 works and is regarded as the world’s most comprehensive museum compilation of art from the GDR and its subsequent traditions. Around three quarters of the holdings date from the GDR period; works of Socialist Realism are deliberately not emphasized. Collections from the early 20th century serve as a historical reference, while the proportion of art created after German reunification is about ten percent, with established figurative lines emphasized in this segment.

The Dieselkraftwerk began in 1977 as a department of the Cottbus District Museum and over time developed into an independent institution, operating under various administrative forms until it was integrated into the new state museum in 2017.

The Rathaushalle continues the tradition of the former Museum Junge Kunst, whose origins date back to the Galerie Junge Kunst in 1965 in Villa Trowitzsch. The Rathaushalle’s collection contains over 11,000 works—paintings, drawings, watercolours, prints, objects, installations and sculptures—with a focus on art from the Soviet Occupation Zone, the German Democratic Republic and the new federal states. The permanent presentation displays about 100 works by 37 artists from four generations; reference points include both artists who studied after 1945 and autodidacts such as Carlfriedrich Claus, Monika Maria Nowak and Carsten Nicolai. Represented positions include, among others, Bernhard Heisig, Werner Tübke, Gerhard Altenbourg and Sabine Grzimek. A particular collecting principle is the targeted acquisition of works by artists who left or were forced to leave the GDR, for example A.R. Penck and Lutz Dammbeck.

In the Packhof, on the upper floor of the granary adjoining the Junkerhaus (Museum Viadrina), the museum has presented rotating exhibitions of young artists since 2003; works by, for example, Richard K. H. Burkart, Daniel Klawitter, Eva‑Maria Wilde, Patricia Waller and Kristina Schuldt have been shown there.