The Rastatt Collection: History and Profile

The print collection of 20th century South German art by Diethelm Lütze forms the basis of the Rastatt Collection. This collection includes, among others, positions of New Objectivity, Expressionism, Informal or Concrete Art. Artists such as Otto Dix, Erich Heckel, Hanna Nagel, Emil Schumacher, Gerlinde Beck and Otto Herbert Hajek are represented.

In addition, the museum owns around 400 works on art in Baden after 1945, including paintings, graphics, sculptures and sculpture - they reflect the trends of recent and recent art history. A large number of the works can be attributed to the environment of the art academy in Karlsruhe. One thematic focus is on the space devoid of people. This thematic field is represented by Hans-Peter Reuter, Ben Willikens or Martin Uhlig, among others. In addition, artists such as Peter Dreher, Susi Juvan, Horst Egon Kalinowski, Barbara Haim, Ritzi Jacobi and Karl Hubbuch are represented.

The Westermann Collection also represents different currents of art after 1945. The collector Günther Westermann invited a wide variety of artists to respond to the object boxes (small wooden boxes in the standard format 13 x 17 x 2.5 centimeters) that he had built himself. How they dealt with the format specification was entirely up to them. While Imi Knoeble, for example, covered the format with a square wooden panel, Franz Erhard Walther chose a fabric cover. In its diversity, the collection is a conceptual exploration of surface, space, materiality, and authorship, and thus addresses fundamental questions of art.

In addition, the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle owns three works by Anselm Kiefer, who is one of the best-known and most successful German artists after World War II and spent part of his childhood and youth in Rastattt. Among these works is the monumental collage "Wege der Weltweisheit".