The Cultural Capital of the Museum

The Museum für Neue Kunst's collection comprises over 12,000 works from the early 20th century to the present day. It includes over 3,000 paintings, sculptures and installations, and around 9,000 drawings and prints. The collection focuses primarily on works from artists with a connection to southwest Germany, including those who were born in the region, studied there or deal with themes relevant to the collection.

Although the Museum für Neue Kunst was founded in 1985, the collection itself is much older, having grown out of the holdings of the Augustinermuseum, founded in 1923. It has continued to grow ever since. The museum owes its rich collections to an array of contributors: The city of Freiburg finances new acquisitions, often with the help of the state of Baden-Württemberg or various foundations. In addition, for more than 30 years, the museum has received substantial support from the Association of Friends. Generous donations and gifts from collectors, citizens and artists also contribute to the ongoing expansion of the collections.

Photo: Marc Doradzillo
Photo: Marc Doradzillo
Photo: Marc Doradzillo
Photo: Marc Doradzillo
Photo: Patrick Seeger

Contemporary Art

Contemporary Art

What are the trends in artistic creation? What issues and themes are currently being discussed? The Museum für Neue Kunst attaches great importance to the observation of contemporary artistic developments. This is reflected not only in the changing exhibitions, but also in the museum's collection, which demonstrates the variety of themes that artists are addressing. Particular attention is paid to the development of the region, with a focus on global trends and issues. In recent years, the collection has been expanded to include works by artists such as Katharina Grosse, Chiharu Shiota, Peter Vogel, Havîn Al-Sîndy, Amelie von Wulffen and Peter Zimmermann.

Photo: Hans Peter Vieser

August Macke in Kandern

August Macke in Kandern

August Macke (1887-1914) was a German artist who from 1905 spent several weeks at a time in Kandern, south of Freiburg. He was born in 1887 in the Sauerland region of Germany and died in 1914 as a soldier in the First World War. Macke's sister Auguste ran the Krone inn in Kandern. These stays were very productive for his artistic work and development. He then travelled to Basel and Paris, where he encountered various modern art movements. The stylistically disparate works in the collection, ranging from Impressionism to Expressionism and being held together by the common thread of their place of origin, which also suggests their current location in Freiburg, bear testament to this.

Photo: Patrick Seeger

Julius Bissier

Julius Bissier

Over the decades, the Museum für Neue Kunst has amassed a comprehensive collection of works by the artist Julius Bissier (1893-1965), spanning his entire career. Born and raised in Freiburg, Bissier's oeuvre reflects a wide range of styles and techniques, from his early works reminiscent of the Old Masters to his late abstract ink and egg tempera paintings. It was Bissier's multifaceted and personal preoccupation with East Asian cultures, which continues to this day, that brought him international acclaim in the late 1950s. Bissier created works that played a key role in the development of abstract art in Germany, alongside works by other prominent artists of the period, including Max Ackermann, Willi Baumeister, Rupprecht Geiger and Ida Kerkovius. The Museum für Neue Kunst has held two major exhibitions dedicated to Bissier, in 1993 and 2018.

Photo: Patrick Seeger

Peter Dreher: Tag um Tag guter Tag

Peter Dreher: Tag um Tag guter Tag

Peter Dreher (1932–2020) was a professor at the Freiburg campus of the State Academy of Fine Arts in Karlsruhe from the mid-1960s until his retirement in 1997. He had a significant and lasting influence on the artistic landscape of Freiburg. For Dreher, the act of painting itself was of paramount importance in his work. His most famous series is Tag um Tag guter Tag, which he began in 1972 with an inaugural painting of a glass. Since 1974, Dreher has painted the same glass on numerous occasions, using the same frame, format and distance each time. By the time of his death, Dreher had produced some 5,000 paintings of the same glass.
The Museum für Neue Kunst owns some 500 of the glass paintings, making it the largest coherent collection. Initially, the Association of Friends acquired one glass painting from each year, but in 2012 the artist made a significant donation on his 80th birthday, which was presented in an exhibition.

Photo: Bernhard Strauss

Priska von Martin

Priska von Martin

Born in Freiburg, Priska von Martin (1912–1982) bequeathed a large part of her considerable estate to the city where she was born. The artist was a pioneer in the field of sculpture, which at the time was dominated by men. The artist's female figures, reindeer, elk and horses are made from a variety of materials including bronze, plaster, aluminium and cardboard. The sculptures are made in a range of sizes, from miniature to life-size. Von Martin has not only presented her sculptures on pedestals in museums but has also staged many of them outdoors and photographed them in a variety of contexts. Her experimental spirit is also evident in her powerful and colourful drawings, collages and watercolours. The Museum für Neue Kunst has brought together the impressive and diverse work and legacy of this long-forgotten artist in an exhibition and comprehensive catalogue.


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