100 years of Museum Folkwang in Essen

In 2022, Museum Folkwang in Essen will be celebrating its centenary with international exhibitions and an extensive special programme. The jubilee programme is defined by the history, present, and future of the museum and its role in the city. It will be celebrated with exhibitions and events that focus on the central focal points of the collection, such as Impressionism, Expressionism, photography, and posters, and on urban society. Founded in 1902 in Hagen by Karl Ernst Osthaus and subsequently opened in 1922 as Museum Folkwang in Essen, the museum is one of the most important art museums in Germany with an international reputation. To this day, the museum’s objectives are influenced by the Osthaus’ commitment to art, cultural inclusion, and dialogue between the cultures.

The centenary year will kick off with a veritable exhibition highlight, namely Renoir, Monet, Gauguin – Images of a Floating World: The Collections of Kojiro Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus under the patronage of Federal German President Franz-Walter Steinmeier, (February 6–May 15, 2022). The major collection of Late Impressionist works from Museum Folkwang enter into dialogue with the collection from the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo. Through some 120 works including pieces by Cézanne, Gauguin, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Rodin, and Van Gogh the exhibition highlights how Impressionism evolved from an art movement initially viewed with critical reception into a style that is today considered the beginning of Modernism. This story is told here by means of two fascinating and outstanding early 20th century collectors and museum founders, namely Kojiro Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus. For the first time since the 1950s a significant part of the Matsukata Collection from the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo will be on display in Europe. For example, the famous composition On the Boat by Claude Monet or the painting The Port of Saint-Tropez by Paul Signac that was once part of the original Museum Folkwang collection will be on show alongside Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s Lise with a Parasol or The Girl with a Fan by Paul Gauguin. In addition to Impressionist masterpieces contemporary installations by Japanese artists Chiharu Shiota and Tabaimo will also be on display. Following the show in Essen the National Museum of Western Art will present a second part of the exhibition in Tokyo entitled People and Nature.

In the second half of the year the exhibition Expressionists at Folkwang. Discovered – Defamed – Celebrated (20 August 2022 – 8 January 2023) will bring one of the most important chapters in the history of Museum Folkwang to life: Founding director Karl Ernst Osthaus as well as his successor Ernst Gosebruch were in close contact with the most important Expressionists. Early on they exhibited works of artists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Franz Marc, Paula Modersohn-Becker or Emil Nolde and acquired major works by theirs. Moreover, the artists themselves derived both inspiration and ideas from the museum’s own collection. The exhibition is devoted to this intense and fruitful interaction – outlining it by means of masterpieces from the Paintings, Sculpture, and Prints sections. Over 120 artworks will relate the chequered history of 20th century Expressionism, whose works remained controversial in the art world up until the 1920s, indeed, were defamed and confiscated in the 1930s, but quickly came to be held in high esteem after the end of the Second World War. The opening will be celebrated with a large round-the-clock summer party.

2022 exhibitions 
Renoir, Monet, Gauguin: Images of a Floating World
The Collections of Kojiro Matsukata and Karl Ernst Osthaus
February 6–May 15, 2022

Candice Breitz
New commission
March 11–May 29, 2022

We Want You! From the Beginning of Posters until Today
April 8–August 28, 2022

Folkwang and the City
Around the City of Essen
May 21–August 7, 2022

Expressionists at Folkwang: Discovered – Defamed – Celebrated
August 20, 2022–January 8, 2023

Image Capital: Estelle Blaschke & Armin Linke
September 9–December 11, 2022

Helen Frankenthaler: Painterly Constellations
December 2, 2022–March 5, 2023

More information: 
Future exhibitions - Museum Folkwang

Press contact:
Yvonne Daenekamp, presse [​at​] museum-folkwang.essen.de, +49 201 88 45 160