LWL- Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte

Description

On the Domplatz in Münster/Westfalen stands the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur, a museum of the Landschaftsverbands Westfalen-Lippe (LWL) with collections on the art and cultural history of the region. Since 1908 the museum has been located on the Domplatz; until 2013 it operated under the name Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte.

The museum originated from the holdings of the Verein für Geschichte und Altertumskunde Westfalens and the Westfälischer Kunstverein and was opened in the new building of 1908. The institution underwent far-reaching changes during the Nazi era: it was renamed in 1934, and in 1937 numerous works were confiscated from the collection in the course of the "Degenerate Art" campaign, including works by Wassily Kandinsky, August Macke, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Erich Heckel and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. A bomb strike in 1941 led to the evacuation of the holdings; as a result, losses remained comparatively limited. In the postwar decades the building was expanded and modernized; in 2003 the Westfälisches Museum für Archäologie moved out, and the museum site was reopened in 2014 after comprehensive redevelopment.

The collection spans from the early Middle Ages to the present and comprises over 300,000 objects. Historical strengths are sacred art, panel painting and monumental sculpture of the Romanesque and Gothic periods, with works by Conrad von Soest, Johann Koerbecke and the Master of Osnabrück, as well as medieval stained glass and liturgical furnishings. Holdings include the Soester Antependium, fragments of the Liesborn Altar and the Marienfeld Altar, and early glass windows by the Master Gerlachus from an important private collection. Renaissance and Baroque art are represented by paintings, goldsmith work, early glass and furniture; the collection also documents regional events such as the Anabaptist period and the Peace of Westphalia. The Moderne Galerie, developed since 1950, presents German Impressionism with Liebermann and Slevogt, Expressionism with a particular emphasis on August Macke, the Bauhaus, up to postwar avant-garde and international positions.

Notable collection areas include an extensive Graphic Collection with thousands of printed portraits, a coin cabinet with objects from antiquity to the present, and a library with over 130,000 volumes. The museum is committed to provenance research and restitutions: for example, works by Hans Makart and Carl Blechen were restituted to or repurchased from their rightful heirs.

As an educational and cultural institution the museum sees itself as custodian, research venue and mediator. It offers a broad program of lectures, concerts, discussions, performances and film series in cooperation with regional partners. The redesign of the exhibition architecture provoked debate because site-specific artworks were repositioned and the integration of a sponsor's logo into a light installation drew critical reactions.