Picasso – and the Westphalian nobility

Whether the great Spanish artist could ever have imagined it? Namely, that the only Picasso Museum in Germany would have its home in a grand town house of the former Westphalian nobility, right in the heart of Münster’s Old Town?

Indeed, the Kunstmuseum Pablo Picasso Münster is the only one of its kind in the whole of Germany. Behind the elegant baroque façade, it houses the world’s largest collection of lithographs by Picasso, together with major series of graphics by Georges Braque, Marc Chagall and Henri Matisse – and has now been doing so for two decades. Around this precious core, the museum regularly stages special exhibitions that in some way offer interesting cross-connections with illuminating insights to important contemporaries such as Joan Miró or to the master photographers of the Magnum Group.

In Münster, however, contemporary art behind baroque facades is not so unusual either. Gerhard Richter’s “Two Grey Double Mirrors for a Pendulum”, to be seen in the deconsecrated Dominican Church (Dominikanerkirche), has, within a very short time – interrupted only by a short period of renovation in the first half of 2020 – become an absolute visitor magnet. The Foucault pendulum, freely and mightily oscillating from the arched ceiling and reflected in mirrors standing six metres tall, creates a place of meditative calm and refuge amid the hustle and bustle of town.

There tends to be much more of a stir in Münster’s biggest museum, the LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur. And little wonder: Its modern “courtyard” architecture creates an ambience that entices people to come in and find out more. The museum has 7,500 square metres of exhibition space on which to present not only its impressive collection of artworks, ranging from the Mediaeval right through to the Avant-garde, but also, at regular intervals, outstanding special exhibitions. For people with an interest in history, on the other hand, the best starting point is probably the Stadtmuseum (City Museum), with a wealth of informative exhibits relating to Münster’s history. Altogether, there are over 30 museums offering interest and enjoyment for art lovers, including such jewels as the thousand-year-old Cathedral Treasures (Domschatz) or – an insider tip! – the breathtaking masterpieces of Asian lacquer art on display in the Museum für Lackkunst, the only museum of its kind in Europe. At the same time, the very latest in contemporary art can also be regularly seen in the Kunsthalle Münster in the Docklands area, and in the other art galleries in the city, too – with new input coming not least from the vibrant arts scene that has grown up around the Kunstakademie Münster (Art Academy). Adventurous insights and viewpoints can always be expected at &ldqÿ;S靀֞auraum”, the annual festival of the museums and galleries – with a long night and cool lounge atmosphere right in the heart of town.

But for all the museums and galleries that are so well worth visiting – Münster has really gained a name on the international art scene for something else, namely, for its “art in public spaces”. This is the leitmotiv for the “Skulptur Projekte”, the event which, following its inauguration in 1977, is held in Münster every 10 years and transforms the city into a focal point for the art world and draws huge numbers of international visitors here. And past events have naturally left their mark, with over 60 sculptures meanwhile to be found all over the city, among them works by Henry Moore, Eduardo Chillida, Claes Oldenburg, Rosemarie Trockel, Ilija Kabakov, Thomas Schütte or Koki Tanaka, to name just a few. And this has naturally developed a further momentum of its own, with public spaces regularly serving as a stage for new artistic interventions also during the ten-year intervals in-between. Take, for example, Tobias Rehberger and his mastery in transforming humble grey switchboxes into wonderful Moon installations.

However, Münster’s city spaces are not just an experience for the eye – they also regularly offer festivals for the ears. Just recently, Münster the Music City presented a resounding triple bill, celebrating the joint centenary of the City Symphony Orchestra, the Faculty of Music of Münster University (Musikhochschule) and the Westphalian School of Music. The City Theatre, too, has its own music section, and then there is, of course, a huge independent scene of choirs and ensembles. Special music highlights, in addition to the opulent concert calendar, include the highly popular, high-calibre “Aaseerenaden” event with its delightful open-air feeling, or the “Grünflächenunterhaltung”, when countless groups set up stage on the Promenadenring and play for the pleasure of the nearby trees and the strolling public. And jazz fans need no telling: They come regularly every two years on a weekend in January for the renowned International Jazzfestival Münster. Or in the years in-between to its no less high-power “Shortcut” edition.

But altogether, it is this mix of established and up-and-coming activists and institutions that make Münster’s cultural scene so extraordinarily vibrant and varied. Alongside eleven theatres, one variety theatre and around 20 cinema screens, there are also any number of other events that call for a large, small or sometimes no stage at all. The biggest stage, i.e. the whole space of the city, is used by the internationally operating, multiple award-winning Theater Titanick (based in Münster and Leipzig) for its captivating open-air performances. Or the Wolfgang-Borchert-Theater – one of the oldest private theatres in Germany, which has moved to a new, spectacular venue in the Flechtheim-Speicher, a former warehouse in the Docklands quarter, which is currently one of Münster’s sought-after districts. So whether to choose gripping drama or grand opera in the Theater Münster (City Theatre), explore unusual performance venues with the mobile “Freuynden und Gaesdten”, or experience the latest avant-garde dance theatre in the Pumpenhaus Theatre – it is all a matter of what the programme has to offer.

New, youthful impulses are also being generated in the field of literature – though this time from somewhere located just outside the city boundaries. Burg Hülshoff is one of the loveliest of the many attractive moated manor houses to be found in the Münsterland. It is also where Annette von Droste-Hülshoff, probably Germany’s best-known woman poet, was born. After a long, deep sleep – at least culturally speaking – Burg Hülshoff was reawakened to new life in 2018 – as the headquarters of the Droste Foundation and as a centre for literature. As the founding director, the Berlin author Jörg Albrecht has set to work with a will. Hülshoff is establishing itself as a place for dialogue on issues of the 21st century – a place for “literature as a fest”, between progressive literature and grassroots democratic education, between local and international initiative, between the analogue and digital world.

Some interesting facts & figures (perhaps worth following up further?)

• Once every 10 years: The "Skulptur Projekte Münster" (founded in 1977 by Klaus Bussmann and Kasper König) is the world’s most important event devoted to the subject of "art in public spaces" – the last “Skulptur Projekte” took place in 2017 and was seen by some critics as even outranking the “Documenta”, which was being held at the same time in Kassel.
• Stick-in-the-muds versus modern art? Things were not quite that simple. At its start in 1977, the Skulptur Projekte met with much incomprehension among city dwellers and aroused furious protests within conservative circles. But it was in fact “progressive” forces who took actual physical action: Following a leftist festivity, a group of students attempted under cover of the night to free Claes Oldenburg’s Large Pool Balls from their fastenings and roll them into the Aasee Lake. They failed. Today, the Balls are one of the city’s landmarks.
• The Theater Pumpenhaus was the first independent theatre in NRW, the Wolfgang Borchert Theater is one of Germany’s oldest private theatres, and with its visually and acoustically breathtaking performances, Theater Titanick is one of the leading proponents of open-air theatre worldwide.
• Over 30 museums, eleven theatres, one variety theatre, 20 cinema screens
• An institution with high international esteem: The “Geschichtsort Villa ten Hompel” – in cooperation with Yad Vashem in Jerusalem and the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, among others – counts as one of the leading centres of research into the perpetrators of the Holocaust.
• Once every two years, the year starts on a high with the International Jazzfestival Münster; in-between, there is the Jazzfestival Shortcut Edition. Extremely influential as a composer and musician, with his last resting place in Münster: Louis "Moondog" Hardin (1916 – 1999). From the 1940s to the 1960s, the blind street musician was an icon of the New York City scene. Philip Glass and Steve Reich credit him with having crucially influenced the development of their minimalist music. After a concert tour in 1974, Moondog spent the rest of his life in Germany, with the last two years in Münster. His grave in Münster’s “Zentralfriedhof” cemetery was designed by his friend, the Viennese artist Ernst Fuchs.

www.stadt-muenster.de/en/tourismus/art-and-culture.html
www.muenstermusik.eu
www.skulptur-projekte.de
www.kunstmuseum-picasso-muenster.de/en
www.lwl.org/LWL/Kultur/museumkunstkultur/en
www.museum-fuer-lackkunst.de/en
www.stadt-muenster.de/museum
www.stadt-muenster.de/villa-ten-hompel
www.burg-huelshoff.de/en