Institutions

As they did previously for Made in Germany in 2007, the three central institutions for contemporary and modern art in Hanover—the Sprengel Museum Hannover, the kestnergesellschaft, and the Kunstverein Hannover—have joined together for the MADE IN GERMANY ZWEI exhibition.

The exhibition, which spread out over all three institutions, ran like a red thread through the city. Working together, the curators of the individual institutions formulated the concept for the exhibition at the three venues. Not only have they coordinated the specifics of the space available in each institution with the choice of artistic works, but they have placed a focus on themes as well as the works, themes that clarify current exploratory artistic issues and bring them into relation.


Sprengel Museum Hannover

Sprengel Museum Hannover
Foto: Michael Herling / Aline Gwose

Sprengel Museum Hannover

The Sprengel Museum Hannover is one of the most important museums of 20th century art. When Dr. Bernhard Sprengel turned over his comprehensive collection to the city of Hanover in 1969, his generous gift provided the impetus to establish the museum. The museum was opened in 1979.

The collection includes works of German Expressionism as well as French Cubism, and ranges all the way to post-World War Two Abstract Art and stylistic movements like Minimal Art, Art Informel, Nouveau Réalisme, Conceptual Art, and Post-Minimal Art. The field of photography and media has developed into an important focus of the collection in recent years. The main focus of the Sprengel Museum Hannover collection is Classic Modern, to which the paintings and sculptures of the first half of the 20th century belong. Important artist collectives (Die Brücke, Der Blaue Reiter), stylistic movements (Cubism, Surrealism), and leading figures (Dix, Boccioni) are substantially represented with outstanding individual works. A special attraction of the collection is the rooms designed and created by artists. The reconstructed Cabinet of Abstraction by El Lissitzky and the reconstruction of Kurt Schwitters’ Merzbau (Merz Construction) present two outstanding, yet, at the same time, totally different concepts of how to artistically design a room. This basic theme is continued in present-day art with the room newly created and designed by James Turrell that displays four different light installations. The Sprengel Museum Hannover is a living forum for art and scholarship with some 20 changing exhibitions each year, numerous symposiums and lectures series, a comprehensive didactic program, as well as having the Kurt Schwitters archive, Kurt and Ernst Schwitters Foundation, Rudolf Jahns Foundation, and the Merz bookstore resident in the institute.

address und contact
Sprengel Museum Hannover
Kurt-Schwitters-Platz
30169 Hannover
Tel +49 (0)511 168 4 38 75
Fax +49 (0)511 168 4 50 93
sprengel-museum@hannover-stadt.de
www.sprengel-museum.de

opening hours
Wednesday - Sunday and on holidays 10 am – 6 pm
Tuesday - 10 am – 8 pm

kestnergesellschaft

kestnergesellschaft
Foto: kestnergesellschaft

kestnergesellschaft

The kestnergesellschaft, located in the heart of Hanover, is one of the largest and best-known German art associations. The kestnergesellschaft has survived since its founding in 1916 despite the turmoil and explosive artistic, social, and technological developments of the 20th century. In the 21st century it remains the goal of the association to present internationally important artists with their most current works. Since 1997, its exhibition hall has been located in the converted rooms of the former Goseriede bath house.

The list of artists who have exhibited in the association’s past reads like a “who is who” of art history. Among the artists having shown their most recent works were Max Liebermann (1916), Alexander Calder (1954), Marcel Duchamp (1965), Eva Hesse (1979), and Jean-Michel Basquiat (1989), and, among others in recent years, David LaChapelle, Daniel Richter, and Alex Katz. Present-day imagery, not only in fine arts but in architecture, fashion and design, is equally the center of interest, as are contemporary music and literature and the theoretic positions of philosophy and the humanities.

The exhibitions, companion catalogs and guides, the kestnerdialogs, kestnerconcerts, and the outreach program, kestnerkids, comprise a wide spectrum of events and information sources of the highest international standards with which current positions of art and theory are vibrantly and discerningly conveyed to the association’s visitors and its over four thousand members.

address und contact
kestnergesellschaft
Goseriede 11
30159 Hannover
Tel +49(0)511 701 200
Fax +49(0)511 701 20 20
kestner@kestnergesellschaft.de
www.kestnergesellschaft.de

opening hours
daily and on holidays 11 am - 6 pm
thursday 11 am - 8 pm
closed on monday

Kunstverein Hannover

Kunstverein Hannover in the KĂĽnstlerhaus
Foto: Michael Herling | Aline Gwose

Kunstverein Hannover

The Kunstverein Hannover, one of the largest and, having been founded in 1832, the oldest art association in Germany, has taken upon itself the task of exhibiting, communicating, and supporting the contemporary art of the new millennium. Its annual six to eight solo and group exhibitions are developed specifically for the galleries of the KĂĽnstlerhaus, where the Kunstverein has had its headquarters since 1856.

There the Kunstverein presents to a broad public the works of international artists—in part newly produced with the support of the association’s own funds—and shows current international developments in thematic nexuses and monographic comparisons.

An innovative outreach program aimed at the casual visitor as well as the expert accompanies all exhibitions and has as its goal the development of an understanding of contemporary artistic issues and topics in the general public. The association offers regularly-held tours and a program in which members of the art association are available to visitors as “talking labels” to answer questions or engage in conversation about individual works in an exhibit. It also provides an introduction to an active confrontation with art through conversation and discussion-orientated offerings through thematically correlated lectures, film programs, and dialogues. Moreover, the art association offers Kunst im Kontext (Art in Context), a wide-ranging program specifically for sensitizing students and school classes to art.

In addition, for the past 25 years the Kunstverein Hannover has also been engaged in the promotion of contemporary art in Lower Saxony through the association’s prize. The prize, awarded every two years, is comprised of a two-year and two one-year studio scholarships in the association’s studio house, Villa Minimo. The scholarship studies conclude with an exhibition in the art association and a publication.

address und contact
Kunstverein Hannover
SophienstraĂźe 2
30159 Hannover
Tel +49(0)511 1699278-0
Fax +49(0)511 1699278-278
mail@kunstverein-hannover.de
www.kunstverein-hannover.de

opening hours
Tuesday - Saturday noon – 7 pm
Sunday and on holidays 11 am – 7 pm