The Märkisches Museum Witten provides an overview of the developments in German art since 1900. However, the origins of the museum go back to before 1900. The "Verein für Orts- und Heimatkunde in der Grafschaft zu Witten" (Association for Local History in the County of Witten) was founded as early as 1886. The initial aim was to establish a collection of local history exhibits. In the foyer of the museum, you can still see a baroque tombstone that was acquired by the association shortly after its foundation: the Strünkede group from the 16th century. From 1909 to 1911, a museum building was erected for the collection, in which the museum is still located today. In the 1980s, an annex was added for temporary exhibitions.
Focal points of the collection
The Witten collection makes it clear: the positions that are summarised under the term Informel are diverse. Common to the various currents is the turn towards the abstract and the renunciation of geometric forms. Instead of the subject, the material, the paint, the canvas itself come into focus and no longer remain as invisible as possible. The creative process takes place spontaneously - without precise conception and planning in advance. The Witten Informel collection includes works by Karl Fred Dahmen, Karl Otto Götz, Gerhard Hoehme, Fred Thieler or Emil Schumacher.
Another focus of the collection is Expressionism - paintings by Max Pechstein, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke, Gabriele Münter - and the Westphalian Expressionists; works by Christian Rohlfs in particular are highlights of the collection.
In addition, the museum provides insights into the development of abstraction in modernism, supplemented by exemplary works by Josef Albers or the Düsseldorf group ZERO. Surreal tendencies of the post-war period and figurative painting of Critical Realism' of the 1960s and 70s can also be found in the collection.
Temporary exhibitions and good neighbourliness
The temporary exhibitions relate German and international contemporary art to the collection. For some years now, contemporary positions have been increasingly presented - for example in the series "Possibilities of Painting"-, but photography, video and installation art are also brought into focus.
Today, the Märkisches Museum is administered by the town and is part of the Kulturforum Witten. In 2016, the building on Husemannstraße was expanded once again and now offers space for the museum and the town library. In the reading café there, museum visitors can have a coffee or attend readings and other events after their visit to the museum.
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