125 years NOW

An exhibition to explore, reflect upon and engage with: The Von der Heydt Museum is celebrating its 125th anniversary and is kicking off its anniversary year in 2027 with an exhibition that invites visitors on a journey through time, exploring the history and stories of the museum and art. Deeply rooted in the city of Wuppertal and with far-reaching connections across the globe: The exhibition focuses not only on the museum’s core, its world-class collection and its origins, but also on the people who have helped shape the museum’s history, and the museum building itself, which has been a defining feature of Elberfeld town centre as a venue for art for 125 years.

The Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal was founded in 1902 as the Elberfeld Municipal Museum. Today, it houses a significant, internationally renowned collection of around 2,300 paintings, almost 700 sculptures and small sculptures, as well as more than 30,000 works on paper, prints and photographs of international art from the 16th to the 21st century, alongside a collection of decorative arts and non-European objects that has been less well known until now. Visitors are invited to immerse themselves in the past through various ‘time capsules’ and to journey through the museum’s history and stories. Highlights of the collection, historical photographs and archive documents being examined for the first time bring the museum to life as an ‘archive of objects’. On this journey through time, a connection is forged between the museum’s 125-year history and the present: Where did the museum’s origins lie, how was art presented, and what was collected, when and why? What new beginnings, low points and upheavals has the museum experienced? And what does the museum of the present and future look like?

Drawing on significant masterpieces from the collection by Paula Modersohn-Becker, Edvard Munch, Willi Baumeister, (Hans Arp), Edgar Degas, Käthe Kollwitz, Pablo Picasso and Gerhard Richter, it highlights milestones in the history of the museum, its collection and its exhibitions: from the museum’s glorious beginnings, through the Nazi era, to its reconstruction after the Second World War, its courageous turn towards the present and its simultaneous awareness of the past. But it also tells the quieter and hitherto hidden history and stories of the museum and its treasures.

The exhibition is accompanied by a varied educational programme.