MKM Museum Küppersmühle for modern art, Duisburg

Exhibitions & Museums

One of the most internationally comprehensive collections of German post-war art is on display at the MKM Museum Küppersmühle...

...located in the middle of Duisburg's lively inner harbor. The museum offers a diverse exhibition program and a unique architecture best described as a combination of industrial culture and white cube. The MKM is not only one of Germany's largest private museums. Thanks to the 2021 expansion of Herzog & de Meuron and the new presentation of the Ströher Collection on a total of 5,000 square meters, the museum has become a central site of German art. Visitors can expect a unique tour of German art history. About 300 works created from the 1950s onward are on display. The museum architecture is also inspiring. On the outside, the striking red brick facade of the new building continues the authentic look of the old building and fits harmoniously into the architecture of the inner harbor. Inside the building one finds a succession of more than forty tall, light-filled art spaces that create a tremendous sense of space. Spectacular are the historic silos, which create the connection between old and new buildings via bridges, as well as the two stair towers of sinuous, terra cotta-colored concrete. They resemble a giant sculpturewhich inevitably draws the eye upward.

Located just a few kilometers from the border of the Netherlands, the MKM is a special destination for young and old alike.  

 

Christoph M. Gais - Photo worlds from 1990 to the present

Sept. 1, 2023 - Nov. 26, 2023

With about 80 works from the years since 1990, this survey presents a painter whose paintings demonstrate unique strength and authenticity. This painter's paintings are timeless and testify to a high culture of painting. Gais himself speaks of the "looted surfaces" of his paintings; he sees them as curtains for walls, as fantasy triggers and cult objects. Gais has lived in the Italian countryside since the early 1990s, and his painting combines the influences of his surroundings with a comprehensive understanding of culture, which is also reflected in the painter's fascination with African cultures. Gais represents a universal understanding of culture that offers valid milestones and sources of inspiration, especially in our disoriented times.

© Christoph M. Gais. Untitled, 1987, oil, pastel and gouache on cardboard, 125 x 96 cm, MKM Museum Küppersmühle für Moderne Kunst, Ströher Collection, Duisburg. ©VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023. Photo: Henning Krause