The RuhrKunstMuseen are opening their treasure troves and bringing the most beautiful treasures to Essen: they are presenting the highlights of their art collections, which now comprise more than 500,000 works, in the joint overview exhibition "21 x 21" at Villa Hügel. Works by Paula Modersohn-Becker meet works by Rosemarie Trockel and Wilhelm Lehmbruck in a themed room. Not far away, Anatol Herzfeld's sculptures are juxtaposed with Martin Kippenberger's paintings.
The important network of 21 museums in the Ruhr region makes national and international art movements visible with the show: guests can look forward to exhibits ranging from impressionist and expressionist works to Zero and Fluxus art and feminist avant-garde. The exhibition is further enriched by the backdrop of Villa Hügel as a center of industrial culture in the Ruhr region. It was the family seat of the Krupp industrial family from 1873 to 1945 and stands for the age of European industrialization like almost no other place. Visitors can trace the links between local industrial history and the global development of art.
Anyone who has acquired a taste for the museum and would like to discover further treasures from the RuhrKunstMuseen can open the association's new, interactive web app. At www.21x21.de, users come across over 400 selected works of art, which are presented with accompanying information texts, video collages and animations. A special feature is the "museum match", which, similar to a dating platform, suggests to art fans the museum in the Ruhr region that matches their interests.
