From Dürer to Kiefer

This summer Kunsthal Rotterdam puts on display a large survey of five centuries of art on paper. This unique selection contains over 140 works of internationally renowned artists. The works belong to fifty museums from the federal state of Nordrhein-Westfalen and show a cross section of Western art history. Works by old masters like Dürer and Rembrandt, by modern artists like Toulouse-Lautrec, Edvard Munch and Picasso and by contemporary artists like Anselm Kiefer, Louise Bourgeois and Gerhard Richter have been brought together for the very first time. Due to the diversity of museums participating the exhibition shows a rich collection of refined engravings, colourful aquarelles, pencil drawings, lithos, screen prints, photographs, etchings and monotypes, which are only rarely shown to the public as a result of their vulnerability. The exhibition is clearly the high point of the Jahr der Grafik and has been composed especially for the Kunsthal. 

Five Centuries of Art on Paper

Amongst the earliest works is a beautiful engraving by Dürer (ca. 1498), a woodcut by Michael Wolgemuth (1493) and a chalk drawing by Rembrandt from 1657. Etchings by Emil Nolde and James Ensor and lithos by Odilon Redon and Maurice Denis illustrate the developments within international art around 1900. Modern art from Germany from the period between 1900 and 1950 is presented at a central location within the pavilion with works by expressionists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Max Ernst, and by artists representing the so-called ‘Der Blaue Reiter' group, amongst whom Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and August Macke. Screen prints by Roy Lichtenstein and Joseph Beuys and drawings by Louise Bourgeois create an image of international contemporary art after 1946. From the twenty-first century an illustrated diary by Erik van Lieshout is shown. The works are put on display in a pavilion that was built exclusively for the exhibition in the day light hall of the Kunsthal.