Annual preview
“Museum A to Z: From the Beginning to the Future”
January 11, 2025 – January 2027
The exhibition "Museum A to Z: From Beginning to Future" at the Von der Heydt Museum in Wuppertal reinterprets the museum’s impressive collection and history, while asking what a museum is or should be today. From traditional roles like collecting, researching, exhibiting, educating, and preserving, to current topics like digitalization, decolonization, and promoting inclusivity—the exhibition offers unique insights and opens up numerous possibilities for engagement.
"Museum A to Z" spans from the museum’s founding phase to themes like local and global collecting, colonial contexts, provenance research, and restitution, pointing towards possible future directions. This presentation complements the newly designed permanent exhibition "Times and Spaces" and for the first time showcases the full diversity of the museum’s historically grown collections, including lesser-known areas such as decorative arts and non-European objects.
On display will be items such as textiles from present-day Indonesia and non-European sculptures, juxtaposed with Wuppertal scenes by artists like Adolf Erbslöh, Carl Grossberg, Erich Heckel, Oskar Schlemmer, and Marie Luise Oertel. This diversity is structured beyond purely thematic categories: paintings by artists such as Ottilie W. Roederstein, Maria Slavona, and Paula Modersohn-Becker illustrate the variety within the painting genre, while the richness of materials and techniques in the decorative arts collection invites new perspectives.
"Museum A to Z" is accompanied by a varied program of educational events and activities. With the Von der Heydt Museum’s upcoming 125th anniversary in 2027, the exhibition offers many opportunities for visitors to discuss the present and future roles of the museum, both generally and specifically at its Wuppertal location.
Maurice de Vlaminck: Modern Art Rebel
February 16 – May 18, 2025
Maurice de Vlaminck (1876–1958) was one of the most important French painters of modernism and a member of the group known as the "Fauves" ("Wild Beasts"), which formed around Henri Matisse and André Derain in 1905. The Von der Heydt Museum, in collaboration with the Museum Barberini in Potsdam, will present the first solo exhibition of Vlaminck in Germany in nearly 100 years, shining a spotlight on this central figure of 20th-century French art. Featuring around 50 carefully selected paintings, "Maurice de Vlaminck: Modern Art Rebel" provides a comprehensive overview of his entire body of work: from his early compositions at the start of the 20th century, through his famous Fauvist paintings, to his later experiments with Cubism inspired by Cézanne and Picasso, and finally his unique interpretation of late Impressionism in his final landscapes.
Key lenders include the Art Institute of Chicago, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Tate London, Centre Pompidou, Musée d'Orsay, Hamburger Kunsthalle, and Museo Nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid.
Born in Paris in 1876 to musician parents, with a Flemish father, Vlaminck received informal art instruction from 1888 to 1891 but never completed formal academic training. He worked as a professional cyclist, mechanic, and musician before meeting painter André Derain in 1900—a pivotal encounter that reignited his passion for painting. In Chatou, he shared a studio with Derain, focusing mainly on landscapes along the Seine, which he explored by bicycle.
When the Fauvist group led by Matisse formed at the 1905 Salon d’Automne, Vlaminck joined. The Fauves' vibrant, expressive style of painting showed formal parallels to German Expressionism. More than any other Fauve member, Vlaminck embraced the "wild" label and cultivated an image as a modern artist-rebel, defiantly rejecting academic painting norms. Deeply influenced by Vincent van Gogh, he quickly became a leading figure of the French avant-garde and was celebrated in Germany as a pioneer of modernity.
Markus Karstieß: Freundschaftsanfrage No. 3
September 2025 – February 2026
The third installment of the "Freundschaftsanfrage" series will feature sculptor Markus Karstieß. Born in Haan in 1971, Karstieß studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy under the renowned artist Jannis Kounellis. Known for his innovative work with ceramics, an ancient medium, he breathes contemporary relevance into this traditional material. His art has been showcased in solo and group exhibitions in museums nationally and internationally. Since 2017, Karstieß has led the Free Art Ceramics program at the Institute for Artistic Ceramics and Glass at Koblenz University of Applied Sciences, and he has curated numerous exhibitions. His work, often steeped in both craftsmanship and mysticism, explores ancient ceramic techniques, mixing figuration with abstraction and incorporating casts inspired by archaeological finds.
The "Freundschaftsanfrage" series is a distinctive program where the Von der Heydt Museum invites renowned contemporary artists to engage with its extensive collection. In this exhibition, Karstieß’s sculptures will enter into a direct dialogue with works from the museum’s collection, inviting viewers to consider connections between contemporary ceramics and historical artifacts.
Dieter Krieg Prize: Jaana Caspary
September 2025 – February 2026
The Dieter Krieg Prize "Heartfelt Thanks to All Painters" has been awarded to the Von der Heydt Museum for 2025, allowing it to acquire a work by Jaana Caspary (b. 1988), an acclaimed sculptor from Wuppertal. This new acquisition will be celebrated with an exhibition providing insight into Caspary’s artistic approach. The Dieter Krieg Prize is conferred by the Dieter Krieg Foundation, established in Munich in 2004 to preserve and promote the work of the influential German painter Dieter Krieg (1937–2005).
Caspary’s sculptures are rooted in real, everyday objects, which she casts and transforms, creating abstracted forms that retain only a hint of their original appearance. She reinterprets these mundane items by altering material, multiplying forms, and shifting perspectives, thus breaking the objects free from their functional contexts. Her work explores the sculptural potential within familiar forms, drawing on modern sculptural traditions while reimagining them for the present day.
Jaana Caspary, born in Wuppertal in 1988, is celebrated for her sculptural works that transform everyday objects into abstract forms. During her studies, she worked as an assistant in the studio of renowned sculptor Tony Cragg. In 2014, she graduated from the Düsseldorf Art Academy under Professor Didier Vermeiren in the Sculpture Department. Since then, Caspary has participated in numerous solo and group exhibitions, most recently at the Skulpturenpark Waldfrieden and the Kunstverein Schwäbisch Hall in 2023. In 2024, she received the “Artima” Art Karlsruhe Sponsorship Award. The Von der Heydt Museum's exhibition in her honor will spotlight Caspary’s innovative sculptural approach, highlighting her reinterpretation of familiar forms through abstraction and transformation.
Guido Jendritzko’s 100th Birthday Retrospective
September 2025 – February 2026
In celebration of the 100th anniversary of Guido Jendritzko (1925–2009), the Von der Heydt Museum will present a retrospective exhibition that traces the evolution of his work from abstract sculpture to concept art. Born in Kirchhain, Brandenburg, Jendritzko studied at the University of the Arts in Berlin from 1950 to 1956, where he was a master student of Karl Hartung. His career was marked by significant accolades, including a scholarship from the Cultural Circle of German Business in 1957, participation in Documenta II in 1959 with three sculptures, and the prestigious Villa Romana Prize in 1960.
Jendritzko is well known in Wuppertal for his two-meter bronze sculpture installed in front of the Krupp-/Siemensstr. elementary school, as well as a 1962 bronze work displayed outside the sports hall of the Gymnasium Am Kothen. Although he initially focused on abstract sculpture, Jendritzko transitioned to concept art in the early 1970s, engaging heavily with photography. His works are held in numerous museum collections and public spaces, with the Von der Heydt Museum possessing eight of his sculptures, numerous ink drawings, and a significant body of photographic works.
In addition to his art, Jendritzko played an active role in cultural discussions, particularly in debates surrounding the construction of a new museum in Wuppertal during the late 1960s. His cultural advocacy reflected a broader shift in the public’s desire for socially engaged, accessible forms of art and a museum model open to contemporary audiences. As the exhibition will illustrate, Jendritzko’s practice evolved from classical abstraction toward a conceptual, socially conscious approach to art.
