Young rebels - Polke, Richter & Friends

Exhibitions & Museums

Experimental avant-garde in the tension between glass art, painting and photography

Sigmar Polke and Gerhard Richter are superstars of the international art world. As students, they and their fellow students Konrad Lueg and Manfred Kuttner organized their own exhibition performance because no one wanted to exhibit their experimental art. The avant-garde of those days is a role model for today's young artists. Four contemporary artists, Laura Aberham, Undine Bandelin, Wanda Koller and Katja Mölich, present (glass) artworks.

For the first time, this exhibition presents sample windows from the process of creating the windows in the south transept of Cologne Cathedral by Gerhard Richter and the windows in Zurich's Großmünster by Sigmar Polke. This, Polke's last major series of works, will be interspersed with a stained glass from the museum collection, which was created immediately after his training as a glass painter and will also be on display for the first time.

The exhibition runs from Oct. 29, 2023 to July 7, 2024

The Deutsche Glasmalerei-Museum is the only museum for flat glass painting in Germany

The history and technology of stained glass from its beginnings in the Middle Ages to the present day is shown on approximately 1400 square metres. The museum collects, researches and conveys an artistic imagery that has given a forward-looking impetus to modernism. The focus of the collection is on stained glass paintings from the 20th and 21st centuries. The works of important glass painters invite you on a voyage of discovery through colour and light. Numerous workshops and events convey the art of glass to children, young people and adults of all ages.

Highlights of a radiant art

The Deutsche Glasmalerei-Museum shows highlights from the stylistic eras of its collection and displays works by well-known artists. A glass-artistic journey through time is presented, from copies from the 19th century with images from the Middle Ages and modern times, works from historicism, classical modernism, the autonomous and architecture-related avant-garde to contemporary trends.

Opening hours: Tuesday to Sunday 11.00-17.00 hrs