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The Sprengel Museum of Hanover and Its Collection Hanover's youngest museum, dedicated exclusively to modern and contemporary art, was opened in June 1979. The establishment of the museum goes back to the generous gift of the manufacturer Dr. Bernhard Sprengel, who in 1969 donated his extensive collection of modern art to the city of Hanover and also donated a large amount of money for the construction of the new museum. In 1992 this first museum construction was extended and completed through a second stage of construction. In a double construction stage competition, in which 192 architects participated, the association of the architects Peter and Ursula Trint, of Cologne, and Dieter Quast, of Heidelberg, was given the task of making a sketch and constructing the new museum, which could then be opened ten years after the donation. These architects planned and completed also the extension of the building. The favourable position of the museum in the recreation area of the Maschsee and at the same time on the outskirts of the city center as well as in close vicinity to the Museums of Ancient Art, the Federal Museum of Lower Saxony and the Kestner Museum, supports the visitor-friendly, yet always renewed, architecture that has characterised the exposition and its preservation from the beginning of the opening to the closing. The reopening of the museum in 1979 immediately favoured the return of a collection of modern art in and for Hanover. The previous one had taken place in 1937 after the brilliant opening in the 1920s and 1930s under Alexander Dorner in what ended up being known as the Provincial Museum, victim of the action called "degenerate art". At that time 245 art works were confiscated and taken away by the Nazis; many of these were never recovered and were thought to be destroyed. After the end of the Second World War, the modern collection had to be completely rebuilt. Ferdinand Stuttmann and Harald Seiler opened the Federal Museum of Lower Saxony using the funds provided to them by the city of Hanover and the federal state of Lower Saxony, supported by numerous donations and long-term loans, including that of the former Pelikan art collection. Dr. Bernhard Sprengel started his collection in direct connection with his visit to the exhibition of "degenerate art" in Munich in 1937, with the purchase of the first two watercolour paintings by Emil Nolde. Later they formed a close personal friendship that outlasted the war. The Sprengel Museum of Hanover now unites the world-famous and qualitatively outstanding Sprengel Collection with the artworks of the 20th century belonging to the city of Hanover and of the federal state of Lower Saxony, which previously had been exhibited in the famous Federal Gallery of Lower Saxony. In addition, the collection of modern graphics came from the Kestner Museum of Hanover, which was strongest in the graphic artworks of German expressionism and in the graphic works of Max Ernst. Thanks to the unification of these important stocks, which until then had been kept in different places, even if the reopening was not completely accessible, the Sprengel Museum of Hanover became the home of one of the most famous collections of modern and contemporary art in Germany. The mutual expansion of single collection pieces turned out to be, most fortunately, the new main strength of the museum. Since then other important works of art, acquired through donations, bequests or long-term loans, have considerably expanded the stocks of the Maschsee houses and have given the collection new impulse. In this context one must now mention the "Kurt and Ernst Schwitters donation", which includes collages, assemblages and sculptures by Kurt Schwitters, countless photographs by Ernst Schwitters, a collection of works of classical modern art belonging to Ernst Schwitters and the Kurt Schwitters file, already previously donated to the museum; that consequently meant a considerable qualitative and quantitative expansion and completion of the existing collection. In addition there was a donation of over 350 art works by the artist Niki de Saint Phalle, who just before her death left them to the city, which was the first to buy and exhibit one of her biggest sculpture groups. Then one should mention the long-term loan of the couple Ella Bergmann-Michael and Robert Michael, which comprises thousands of pieces - collages, drawings, graphic works, films, photographs, architectural plans, and advertising sketches made throughout the artist's entire creative period. Finally, we should also mention the gifts of the couple Wolf and Ursula Hermann, who donated the largest collection of works by the painter Horst Antes to the Sprengel Museum of Hanover. The presentation of the collection gave its support to the decisive artistic movements of the early years of the 20th century: to the German expressionists and the French cubists. The development of other main points, or rather, artwork groups, reveals the main character of the collection and distinguishes it from that of many other museums in Germany. Very expressive emphasis is given to the artwork groups, which are dedicated to Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger, the French sculptor Henri Laurens, Paul Klee, and Max Ernst, as well as to Emil Nolde and Max Beckmann. With the great Kurt Schwitters Collection, which also includes the reconstruction of the Merz building and the unique "Abstract Cabinet" by El Lissitzky, these key points in the art in the 1920s and 1930s are made known. There are also examples of work of the Bauhaus in Weimar and Dessau, the "Neue Sachlichkeit" in Germany, and international surrealism, which give further emphasis to the dynamic and exciting on-going development of the dialectical principles of art between the two world wars. Smaller artwork groups by Hans Arp, Lyonel Feininger and Adolf Hoelzel accompany and give importance to the so-called artworks collections. A small, but not meaningless, group of works deals with the special role of Hanover in the world of art between the wars. The exhibited samples of the "Neue Sachlichkeit" of Hanover, the "abstract Hanover" group and the contemporary active outsider (one of whom is Kurt Schwitters) puts the meaning and the artistic position of this art of painting in comparison with, and in the context of, the German and international art of that age. The middle of the century, historically marked by the Second World War, formed a hiatus not only in Germany's history. After the end of the war Germany achieved many goals and started to take a journey towards an aristocratic art of abstract principles regarding creation. Important collections of the "école de Paris", of "abstract expressionism" in Germany, of "action painting" in the USA, and of "tachisme" in France - all expressive forms that overcame national boundaries - are kept in the museum. Numerous pictures and sculptures of this artistic movement came into the Sprengel collection through what were at the time the futuristic exhibitions of the Kestner association. The works of Ernst Winhelm Nay play another important role. The "abstract" project of the middle of the century came in for increasing artistic criticism in the 1960s. It was called into question and abandoned for different reasons by the counter-plans of a newer approach to reality. Artworks and objects by Arman Gerhard Richter, Wolf Vostell, Sigmar Polke, A.R. Penck, by the Italian "transavanguardia", and by the following younger generations represent the 1970s and 1980s in the museum's collection. The series of the excellent single artworks begins with paintings by Edvard Munch and James Ensor, by Umberto Boccioni, Marc Chagall and Otto Dix and reaches up to the present: paintings and objects by Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Christo, Tom Wesselmann, Donald Judd, Per Kirkeby and Bruce Nauman and many more. The graphics collection is more than a casual addition to the existing museum collections. Under the concept of graphics we now include all types of graphic prints, and all other techniques on paper such as watercolour, gouache, drawing or collage. A wide range of important artworks of the 20th century were produced with these techniques. The great quantity of graphic artworks kept in the museum makes a permanent exhibition impossible. Specially equipped exposition rooms, which have been provided with appropriate lighting and climate control, so that the exhibited artworks would be damaged as little as possible, have made it therefore possible for several artists or particular themes to be part of dedicated exchange expositions. In this way the rich collections can, at least temporarily, be made accessible to a larger audience. Next to the expressionist graphic works by E. L. Kirchner and Emil Nolde we find that the most important points of the collection are the graphic prints by Max Ernst, Marc Chagall, Max Beckmann and especially those of Pablo Picasso. The collector Bernhard Sprengel had - together with his wife - with a never failing commitment and irresistible energy, in the course of time become quite a connoisseur, and the Picasso group and especially the graphic prints became the heart of his collection. So today this important collection counts about 12 oil paintings, 13 gouache works, watercolours and drawings, two plastic artworks, 321 graphic prints, as well as a few illustrated books and files. The original Bernhard Sprengel collection was later augmented by the loans of two paintings, an original on paper and nine print graphics, including "incunabula" of the Spanish artist's graphic work such as "Salomé" (1905), "La Minotauromachie" (1935) or "La femme qui pleure" (1937). The great expertise of the collector proved itself clearly by the fact that just for the graphic prints by Picasso the sheets stand out as being especially unique in quality and in good condition. Bernhard Sprengel had often exchanged the sheets simply to obtain a good quality sample, an earlier, non-steeled print or the best state of preservation. In the period after the Second World War a few new important accents were introduced into the existing graphics collection. Thanks to the Sprengel collection and to Mr. and Mrs. Hermann a great quantity of graphic works by Horst Antes was brought together, which in an extraordinary way represent the graphic print work of the artist. Later on, in 1992, the Swedish artist Karl Fredrik Reuterswaerd from time to time donated to the museum a sample of his graphic print works. The same was done by Timm Ulrichs of Hanover. And finally, from different sources in the 1980s, a representative section of art works on paper by Joseph Beuys as well as other artists were acquired; at the time these artists were considered "wild young men" or "furious painters". It is to be expected that also in the future investment in the strong points of the collection will be one of the main tasks of the graphics collection of the Sprengel Museum of Hanover. Translation by Elinor and Sylvia Parks; revision by Toni Seckler and Gerald Parks
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