Upcoming Exhibitions

Museum Gunzenhauser
12. May 2024 – 1. Sep 2024

Sieh Dir die Menschen an!

Hans Grundig, Bildnis Gerda Laube, 1925, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/Jürgen Seidel

What does our face reveal about our character, our life, our political leanings? In the context of the current use of artificial intelligence, this is a question that might well give rise to a comeback for physiognomy using algorithms and statistics. This approach is not new. Concepts of types were widespread even in the Weimar era. Reflections on physiognomy, type theory and characterology abounded, both in scientific publications and in the flourishing newspaper, cinema and ...

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Schloßbergmuseum
26. May 2024 – 29. Sep 2024

In Stein gemeißelt

August Friedrich Reichel, Ansicht der Kattundruckerei Pflugbeil/Clauß, Detail, 1839, Foto: Volker Schriever

A double coat of arms with a gilded crown adorned the postal mileposts in front of the city gates, marking a good start to travel in Saxony, whether on horseback or by stagecoach, at the time of Augustus the Strong. Wandering journeymen consulted the stone mileposts for information on the distance to their destination and the number of hours’ journey time remaining. The directively guiding postal mileposts and other mile markers were innovative and reliable. ...

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Museum Gunzenhauser
16. Jun 2024 – 4. Aug 2024

WIN/WIN

Ute Richter, Pour mes chers amis français. Comment c’était avant la chute du mur, Ausstellungsansicht, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemntiz/Archiv

Every year the Cultural Foundation of the Free State of Saxony acquires works by contemporary fine artists in order to financially support such artists at important points in their career and make their work accessible to the public. The works purchased are by artists who work primarily or reside in the Free State of Saxony or whose works have close links with Saxony’s cultural landscape. The main focus of the undertaking is on promoting younger ...

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Stadtraum
22. Jun 2024 – 29. Sep 2024

NEW ECOLOGIES

Gil Shachar, The Cast Whale Project, Das Abformen am Strand, 2018, Lambert‘s Bay, Südafrika, August, Foto: Warrick Mcleod © VG Bild-Kunst Bonn, 2023

Following the exhibition GEGENWARTEN | PRESENCES in 2020, a new and extensive public art project titled NEW ECOLOGIES will be hosted in Chemnitz in summer 2024.

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Schloßbergmuseum
23. Jun 2024 – 24. Nov 2024

Zwischen Zunft und Fabrik

Kattundruckerwerkzeuge und –produkte, Chemnitz um 1800, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/May Voigt

After the end of the Seven Years’ War, the economic decision-makers in the Electorate of Saxony transformed Saxony from a devastated and financially ruined state into a leading German economic centre within a matter of a few years. This period, known as the rétablissement, gave rise to a diverse economic landscape, in which towards the end of the century the foundations were laid for the transition to industrial capitalism: The medieval instrument of craftsmen’s guilds ...

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Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz
7. Jul 2024 – 20. Oct 2024

Hanna Bekker vom Rath

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Bildnis Hanna Bekker (Detail), 1952, Museum Wiesbaden, Schenkung Maximiliane Kraft 2013 © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023

The exhibition presents one of the most dedicated art collectors and dealers of the post-war period. Hanna Bekker vom Rath started out as a painter, while also promoting numerous expressionist artists by purchasing their works.

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Museum Gunzenhauser
29. Sep 2024 – 30. Mar 2025

Best of

Gabriele Münter (1877–1962), Landschaft mit Hütte im Abendrot, 1908, Öl auf Papier auf Karton , 33 x 40,8 cm, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Eigentum der Stiftung Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/László Tóth © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

The Stiftung Gunzenhauser is one of the large and outstanding private collections in Germany with more than 3,000 works. To mark the start of the 2025 European Capital of Cultural, Museum Gunzenhauser will present major works from that top-ranking collection. Icons of Classical Modernism, works that have travelled most and are most in demand, or seldom shown gems from the collection will be presented in varying combinations. The focus will not only be on the ...

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Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz
17. Nov 2024 – 2. Mar 2025

Erich Heckel

Erich Heckel, Mädchen (Detail), 1909, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/May Voigt

Erich Heckel was a founding member and commercial director of the Brücke artist group, with close ties to Saxony and Chemnitz. Jürgen Brinkmann’s outstanding donation to Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz significantly expands the collection through the addition of four watercolours and 40 graphic works produced between 1905 and 1966, thus tying in with the most recent acquisition of the sculpture Stehende, from 1920.

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Schloßbergmuseum
20. Nov 2024 – 2. Mar 2025

Der Fotograf Paul Wolff

Paul Wolff, Blick vom Jakobikirchturm über das Chemnitzer Stadtzentrum in Richtung Sonnenberg, um 1905, Landesamt für Denkmalpflege Sachsen (Nachlass Paul Wolff)

Architectural photography constitutes a focal point in the work of Paul Wolff. Wolff also documented the everyday life of urban and rural populations. His estate with over 6,000 glass plate negatives is now kept by the Saxony State Office for the Preservation of Monuments. The exhibition will feature a selection of these negatives, including a variety of views of the city of Chemnitz. The photographic motifs dating primarily from the period before and after the ...

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Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz
24. Nov 2024 – 23. Mar 2025

Reform of Life

Silver Studio, Druckstoff Tulip, 1898, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/PUNCTUM/Bertram Kober © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2023

In the late 19th century the Art Nouveau movement constituted an attempt at reform through art, at a time when industrialisation’s negative social and environmental effects could no longer be ignored. Across Europe, »apostles of the New Style«, such as the extraordinary Belgian artist Henry van de Velde, spread their convictions of an artistically-designed environment that would improve people’s lives. Van de Velde designed three houses and multiple interiors in Chemnitz, foremost Villa Esche, as ...

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Museum Gunzenhauser
27. Apr 2025 – 10. Aug 2025

European Realities

Otto Dix (1891–1969), Rothaarige Frau (Damenporträt), 1931, Mischtechnik auf Leinwand auf Tischlerplatte, 60,8 x 36,6 cm, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz – Museum Gunzenhauser, Eigentum der Stiftung Gunzenhauser, Chemnitz, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/PUNCTUM/Bertram Kober © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2020

With a focus on painting, the European Realities exhibition is dedicated to the many different European Realism movements throughout nearly all of Europe in the 1920s and 1930s. The project addresses the issues of starvation and misery, and about the modernisation of industry. It reports on the economic upswing and cultural boom, on technical progress, on the big city and nightlife, on emancipation and diversity. This period in art has never been presented on such ...

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Kunstsammlungen am Theaterplatz
10. Aug 2025 – 2. Nov 2025

Edvard Munch

Edvard Munch, Selbstporträt (Ausschnitt), 1895, Lithografie, 59,6 x 43,5 cm, Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz, Foto: Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz/László Tóth

Norwegian-born painter Edvard Munch is one of the most important pioneers of modern painting in Europe. Munch registered the intensity of an entire period much as a seismograph, expressing it through his emotionally charged paintings. Angst – a key pictorial theme in his works – was ever present.

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