The prestigious "Pritzker Award" for architecture and "Museum of the Year" 2016 - the Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach can boast two top-class awards. It has one of the most important collections of art since 1960.
The Viennese architect Hans Hollein once said about his work in Mönchengladbach that he approached the planning of the museum on the Abteiberg as an architect and as an artist. "Because the architect creates an autonomous work of art - for works of art and people." Indeed, the postmodern building, embedded in a heterogeneous landscape between the historic abbey and the modern city center, is one of the most exciting museums far beyond the Lower Rhine region.
Temporary exhibitions on contemporary art
Specializing in expressionist works at the beginning of the 20th century, the Städtisches Museum Mönchengladbach's holdings today form one of the most important collections of art since 1960. Joseph Beuys, among others, exhibited here for the first time. The museum presented early works by the Düsseldorf artists' group Zero, Nouveau Réalisme and Pop Art - and acquired them permanently. Visitors also encounter names such as Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Isa Genzken and Martin Kippenberger in the exhibition rooms, some of which are located underground. In addition, the Museum Abteiberg presents changing exhibitions on current positions in contemporary art. So that the collection continues to grow.
It was enriched in 2002 by a "stroke of luck" when the sculpture garden was opened in the former monks' orchard on the occasion of the decentralized state garden show Euroga 2002+. Between the "rice terraces" designed by Hans Hollein and the pseudo-baroque parterre by Karl Birkigt, sculptures by Claes Oldenburg, Franz West and François Morellet, among others, have been "hiding" among the old trees ever since.
