10 Jahre Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein

In the ten years of its existence, the Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein has proved itself an innovative art institute and a important source of incentive. This National Galley has become a significant player on the international exhibition and art scene, participates in the establishment of Liechtenstein’s identity, and exerts an educational influence on the whole region.

In the first nine years, the museum showed 84 different exhibitions, the large majority of them productions of its own. 44 of these were classical temporary exhibitions and 40 were presentations of works from the collection. A total of 260,000 people visited these exhibitions. Throughout those years, the museum’s exhibition activities were elucidated by means of 1,400 guided tours, 520 school tours and 430 fringe events.

To mark its 10th Jubilee, the museum’s own collection will be shifted to the foreground: In the summer there will be a unique Arte Povera exhibition, featuring all the main representatives of that movement, and throughout the whole year various aspects of the museum’s own holdings will be highlighted in presentations of works from the collection. The programme will be rounded off with an exhibition of works by Gotthard Graubner and a show of new acquisitions in the Princely Collections.

“Gotthard Graubner. Painting” will open the Jubilee Year, with paintings, watercolours and drawings in which the artist's understanding of his work in terms of both continuity and change will emerge. The dense presentation of outstanding works will be hung partly chronologically, partly as a dialogue, underscoring the artist’s main concerns in his more than fifty years of creative work.

In the summer months the Kunstmuseum will show an extensive exhibition of Arte Povera works. The aim of the Arte Povera artists was to reduce the distance between work and viewer, to bridge the threshold between art and life and to expand perception. Familiar, everyday, often insignificant things are re-discovered as new materials worthy of art. This new art was to be simpler and more modest in its means, more authentic in its materials. On show will be major works by Anselmo, Boetti, Calzolari, Fabro, Gilardi, Kounellis, Merz, Paolini, Pascali, Penone, Pistoletto, Prini, Salvo and Zorio. The focus will be on the late 1960s, the core era of Arte Povera.

“The Prince as Collector. New Acquisitions under Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein” is the name of the exhibition scheduled for late September. It will provide insight into the Princely Collections and indicate how, to this very day, the ruling Prince Hans-Adam II von und zu Liechtenstein is continuing the centuries-long collecting activities of the Royal House.

In 2010 the museum’s own collection will be the focus of attention in select presentations of works from the holdings. Some of these presentations will be devoted to individual artists, for example André Thomkins, Pavel Pepperstein and Robert Watts; others will be thematic in character, such as a presentation of works from the former Rolf Ricke Collection and, in autumn, a “Liechtenstein Dialogue”.

Moreover, with the “Artwork of the Month”, one work from our own collection will be the focal point each month throughout the year. Admission, including a guided our at 11 am, is free of charge on the first Sunday of the month. The “Take Away” short tours at midday are also oriented around the Artwork of the Month.

Events
In the course of the Jubilee Year, various other activities will constitute additional points of emphasis. A summer party on 26 June, organised by the Kunstmuseum in cooperation with the Liechtensteinische Kunstgesellschaft and the Liechtensteinische Kunstschule, is already on the agenda, plus an official ceremony on 11 November 2010.