»Museum A to Z«

The Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal is taking a critical look at its own institution: the comprehensive exhibition Museum A to Z. From the Beginning to the Future addresses current topics such as diversity, decolonization and digitalization. The curators Anna Baumberger and Dr. Henrike Stein look at the entire history of the museum since it was founded in 1902 and reflect on the local and global development of the collection, particularly in relation to colonial and National Socialist contexts. The exhibition opens on January 11 and will run for two years until January 2027, complementing the newly designed permanent exhibition Times and Spaces. Classics of the Collection.

Museum A to Z. From the Beginning to the Future illustrates the historically evolved diversity of the Wuppertal museum collection in a surprising way. Non-European objects and arts and crafts join a wide range of European paintings. The exhibits are not sorted and presented according to classical categories, but are presented in an innovative structure that creates new relationships between the objects. Particular attention is paid to provenance research, which is currently an important task for museums. Among the well-known artists are Adolf Erbslöh, Carl Grossberg, Erich Heckel, Emmy Klinker, Max Liebermann, Margrit Linck, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Marie Luise Oertel,  Max Pechstein, Ottilie W. Roederstein, Oskar Schlemmer and Maria Slavona.

The museum is taking further steps in the area of barrier-free communication: for the first time, blind and visually impaired people can experience Pechstein's painting The Artist's Son on the Sofa (1917) using a tactile model. The model serves as an example of the tasks that the museum, and museums in general, see for the future. Visitors to the exhibition are invited to discuss future requirements for museums and to express their wishes and ideas.