As a city of fine arts, Munich has a variety of great exhibitions in its fine art museums throughout the year. Some to catch include European master paintings of the 15th to the 19th century at the 175th Anniversary of the Alte Pinakothek, modern photographies by Cy Twombly at Museum Brandhorst, film and media collections of Ingvild Goetz at Haus der Kunst, and modern arts and design during the exhibiton series "American Summer" at the Pinakothek der Moderne.
175th Anniversary of the Alte Pinakothek
The Alte Pinakothek is marking its 175th anniversary in 2011 with a wide range of events. A series of exhibitions, lectures, guides tours and other events in this jubilee year focuses on the history of the museum and its collection. The exhibitions show masterworks of Vermeer, Cranach, Altdorfer, Dürer, Perugino and others. In addition, at the exhibition “Treasures from the Depot”, paintings that are seldom or have never been displayed before can be seen throughout the whole anniversary year. www.pinakothek.de/en
Cy Twombly Photographs 1951 - 2010 at Museum Brandhorst
April 6 - July 10, 2011
Cy Twombly is celebrated internationally for his paintings, drawings and sculptures. His extensive photographic œuvre, however, is much less famous, though no less worthy of attention. A selection of circa 120 photographs covering sixty years of his career will now reveal the artist’s special approach and the creative range of this œuvre. Besides flower still-lifes and landscapes it is views of his studio that captivate. The latter especially reflect what light conditions and atmosphere Twombly favors in photographs of his works. The exhibition tour starts at Museum Brandhorst in Munich where Twombly’s oeuvre can be studied unlike elsewhere in the world. www.museum-brandhorst.de/en
Collection Goetz at Haus der Kunst
A new arts location in Munich: From now through 2014, Ingvild Goetz will regularly present works from her collection of film and media art in the 14 cabinet-like rooms of Haus der Kunst’s air raid shelter. The cooperation between the collection Goetz and Haus der Kunst starts with an exhibition of video installations. The first presentation addresses the theme of the rooms themselves: Air raid shelters can provide protection and refuge in times of war but also cause feelings of imprisonment and oppressiveness. The selected films deal with war experiences and the consequences of war, reflecting these both from the perspective of the military, as well as from the perspective of individual civilian survivors. www.hausderkunst.de
Mondrian and De Stijl at Lenbachhaus Kunstbau
April 16 - August 15, 2011
With the exception of the Bauhaus, probably no other art movement of the first half of the twentieth century has had such a pervasive influence on our everyday lives as the De Stijl group around Piet Mondrian and Theo van Doesburg. Mondrian, who along with Wassily Kandinsky and Kasimir Malevich one of abstract painting’s founding fathers, created strictly geometrical paintings that have become icons of modernism. Their characteristic structure of black grids into which fields of primary colours are inserted has long assumed a life of its own in art as well as in fashion, advertising and popular culture. Pieces of furniture, such as Gerrit Rietveld’s "Red and Blue Chair" (c. 1923) also enjoys the status of design classics. www.lenbachhaus.de
Donald Judd at Pinakothek der Moderne (International Design Museum)
A Good Chair is a Good Chair
July 15 - September 09, 2011
The American Donald Judd (1928-1994) came to fame as one of the champions of Minimal Art in the 1960s, and expanded his creative reach to include the fields of architecture and design. Few have known to date, however, that Donald Judd also worked intensively on furniture design. This exhibition presents a focussed selection of furniture designed by Judd. It also includes prototypes and early items that Judd himself built for his own use that, up until now, have rarely been on show outside Judd's home towns of New York and Marfa, Texas. www.pinakothek.de
Dürer - Cranach - Holbein at Hypokunsthalle
The Discovery of Man: German Portraiture about 1500
September 16, 2011 - January 15, 2012
In collaboration with the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, the Kunsthalle of the Hypo Cultural Foundation in Munich presents an exhibition on German portraiture around 1500. Over 175 outstanding artworks, including paintings by Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528), Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) and Hans Holbein the Younger (1497/98-1543), as well as formidable sculptures, medals, prints and drawings, demonstrate how individuals became the focal point of artistic interest in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries and how artists developed into explorers and inventors of humankind. www.hypo-kunsthalle.de