Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) in Frankfurt, Germany ~ A Major Museum of Contemporary Art ~ Toured By Our Editor

Written by Gaspard Stratman Wednesday, 15 December 2010 23:36

The Museum für Moderne Kunst (MMK) in Frankfurt, Germany is one of the world’s most important museums of contemporary art and, despite being a relative newcomer on the scene, has in the space of less than two decades established a firm place for itself in the international museum scene. Ever since MMK first opened in 1991, it has played a major part in the cultural and social life of the city. Its post-modern architecture is considered unique. The MMK Collection includes over 5,500 works of international art, ranging from the 1960s to the present. The works cover all the genres of modern and contemporary art, ranging from painting, sculpture, video and photography to light, sound and performance art. The MMK was founded in 1981. In 1983, there was an open competition held for proposals for the museum building. On May 17, 1983 Vienna-based architect Hans Hollein was awarded 1st Prize and commissioned to handle the project. MMK officially opened in June 1991. With his design for the museum Hans Hollein has accomplished an unusual architectural feat. He has succeeded in creating a triangular building which not only fits neatly into the triangular space available to him, but which is an experience to discover, and leaves a lasting impression on the visitor. The main entrance to the museum ensures a clear access point and linking the edifice to the city’s ancient heart. The building is structured around a central hall that is suffused with natural light from above, and from which you can not only see but also reach all MMK’s various rooms and floors. What makes the architecture so exciting is the relationship of the individual rooms to one another, their varying proportions, and the specific use of light in the building as a whole. MMK contains almost 40 exhibition rooms, and, owing to the particular shape of the building, they have been individually designed such that it is hard to compare them with customary museum rooms encountered elsewhere. The result is a marvelous balance of architecture and art. Visitors perceive the architecture thanks to the art, and vice versa. The exhibition area measures 4,150 sq.m. of which 1,472 sq.m. has natural light. The museum has also another building, the MMK Zollamt which is a satellite exhibition site and is located in a building directly opposite the museum that once was home to the City of Frankfurt's Main Customs Office. The building has been completely modernized and artistic positions by younger artists or “unknowns” have been presented here regularly since 2007. The majority of the MMK Collection is made up of the former Ströher Collection, which was acquired in 1981-82 by the City of Frankfurt, and was the main reason leading to the foundation of the MMK. The works acquired include superlative pieces by the leading lights of American Pop Art and Minimalism, like Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Roy Lichtenstein, Donald Judd, Carl Andre and Dan Flavin, as well as leading German artists of the same era, such as Joseph Beuys, Blinky Palermo, Reiner Ruthenbeck and Franz Erhard Walther. Alongside these key currents in the art of the 1960s, the MMK Collection also covers art of the 1980s and 1990s. It boasts notable extensive groups of works by artists such as Rosemarie Trockel, Katharina Fritsch, Hanne Darboven, Andreas Slominski, Thomas Bayrle, Thomas Ruff, Bernd and Hilla Becher, Gerhard Richter, Bruce Nauman, Robert Gober, Sturtevant and many others. The MMK Collection includes leading works by international heavyweights such as Francis Alÿs, Martin Boyce, Tania Bruguera, Maurizio Cattelan, David Claerbout, Thomas Demand, Cerith Wyn Evans, Douglas Gordon, Aernout Mik, Teresa Margolles, De Rijke / De Rooij, Gregor Schneider, Santiago Sierra, to mention a few. “Young Art” is often acquired and in time they have become very valuable. The MMK’s library contains approximately 48,000 volumes that include 30 current journals, international exhibition catalogs, and a broad range of different materials and reference works that can be consulted by the public. Visit website :_ www.mmk-frankfurt.de/

The MMK’s collection is shown in seamless transition from the works of the 1960’s to the ones of the present day. Alongside its mission to familiarize the general public with contemporary art, the MMK’s other prime objective is the ongoing expansion of its Collection. Ever since the museum’s inception, the MMK and its directors have been committed to pursuing both goals. The works of artist who have continually produced pieces for a long period (25 years) are displayed separately. Bernd and Hilla Becher’s photo series stretching from 1961 to 1991 fills one room, while another contains On Kawara’s Date Paintings, which also span a long period of time, from 1966 to 1991. The Gerhard Richter’s 18.Oktober 1977 (October 18, 1977) cycle, occupies a place of honor in the collection. The museum has called this division the “Contemporary Bridgehead” and is subdivided into a middle-aged and a younger generation of artists. Works of the middle-aged generation represent a necessary foundation to this section, both as a counterpart to the »1960s bridgehead« and by serving to place the works of the younger generation in context. This foundation is continually built upon. This part of the collection consists of works by Anna and Bernhard Blume, Siah Armajani, Jeff Wall, Nam June Paik, Christian Boltanski, Rémy Zaugg, Peter Roehr, Charlotte Posenenske, Joseph Beuys, Bruce Nauman, James Turrell, Lothar Baumgarten, Mario Merz, Alighiero Boetti, Hanne Darboven, Reiner Ruthenbeck and Ilya Kabakov. The younger generation artists include Julian Schnabel, Stephan Balkenhol, Francesco Clemente, Günther Förg, Bill Viola, Reinhard Mucha, Katharina Fritsch, Jochem Hendricks, Axel Kasseböhmer, Rosemarie Trockel, Thomas Ruff, and Manfred Stumpf. The MMK also has groups of works by Albert Oehlen, Herbert Hamak, Andreas Slominski, Udo Koch, Cecilia Edefalk, Miriam Cahn, Beat Streuli, Urs Breitenstein and Bernhard Härtter. One notable exception to this rule is provided by the kind of works which contain a multitude of smaller works or by the type of works that contain the notion of time, as is often the case with installations such as the ones of Paik, Viola and Turrell. These works are largely "self-explanatory". Since the opening exhibition in 1991 there have been 20 “Changes of Scenes” at the museum and they take place every six months. The MMK special temporary exhibitions complement the standing collection presentation, making for a permanent shift in perspective. Alongside the permanent collection and the special exhibitions there are the “Satellites”, which are rooms allocated a specific function such as the Archive, the Children’s Room and the Dornbracht Installation Projects. Currently the MMK Museum für Moderne Kunst is showing until January 9th 2011 the exhibition “Fashion and Photography in the 90’s”, which demonstrates how the fashion scene reinvented itself through photography. A traveling retrospective, “Felix Gonzalez-Torres" will be exhibited from 29 January through 25 April, 2011. .The MMK is an obligatory stop for the devotees of Contemporary Art.