Lenbachhaus

The Lenbachhaus is an art museum housing the Städtische Galerie, the municipal gallery of Munich, Germany. Located in the city's Kunstareal in the Maxvorstadt district, it occupies the former villa and studio of the celebrated 19th-century portraitist Franz von Lenbach. The institution is internationally renowned for holding the world's largest and most significant collection of works by Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a foundational group of expressionist artists active in Munich in the early 20th century. Beyond this avant-garde core, the museum's scope extends to Munich painting of the 18th and 19th centuries, New Objectivity, and international contemporary art, making it a vital bridge between historical and modern visual culture.

The villa was constructed between 1887 and 1891 by architect Gabriel von Seidl as a Florentine-style residence for Franz von Lenbach. After Lenbach died in 1904, his widow Lolo sold the property to the City of Munich in 1924, donating the interior furnishings and numerous works by Lenbach to form the basis of a new gallery dedicated to the Munich School and contemporary art. To accommodate the growing collection, architect Hans Grässel added an extension between 1927 and 1929, creating the current three-wing structure. The Städtische Galerie officially opened on May 1, 1929. In the 1930s, the National Socialists seized control, purging the collection and acquiring works aligned with party ideology, some of which were later identified as illegitimate acquisitions. Heavy bombing in 1944 and 1945 severely damaged the building, destroying the original interiors of Lenbach's studio wing, though the collections had been moved to safety. The museum reopened provisionally in the north wing in 1947. A transformative event occurred in 1957 when artist Gabriele Münter celebrated her eightieth birthday by donating over a thousand works by Der Blaue Reiter to the gallery, elevating it to international prominence. During the 1970s and 1980s, the museum shifted its acquisition policy toward living artists, a move highlighted by the controversial 1979 purchase of Joseph Beuys's installation Zeige deine Wunde. In 1994, the museum expanded its exhibition capacity by opening the Kunstbau, an underground space above the Königsplatz subway station designed by Uwe Kiessler. Between 2009 and 2013, the museum underwent a comprehensive renovation and expansion by Foster + Partners, which replaced a 1970s addition and modernized the facilities.

The Lenbachhaus collection encompasses over 28,000 works. Its historic core consists of Munich painting from the 18th and 19th centuries, including the Munich School and the Munich Secession, founded in 1892. In 2012, a cooperation with the Christoph Heilmann Foundation brought around one hundred additional works, expanding the scope to include characteristic examples of Dresden Romanticism, the Berlin and Düsseldorf schools, and the French Barbizon school, including a major work by Gustave Courbet. The museum's worldwide reputation rests on its unparalleled holdings of Der Blaue Reiter expressionism. The post-World War I era is represented by New Objectivity, reflecting the sober realism of the 1920s and 1930s. Since the 1980s, the museum has systematically collected international contemporary art, focusing on selected artists to represent their development in depth, with particular strengths in post-1945 abstraction, conceptual art, and new media.

The centerpiece of the museum is the Der Blaue Reiter collection, largely built from Gabriele Münter's 1957 donation of over a thousand works. This gift included around ninety oil paintings by Wassily Kandinsky, 330 watercolors and drawings, his sketchbooks, reverse glass paintings, and prints, alongside more than twenty-five paintings by Münter and works by Franz Marc, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, and Paul Klee. Signature works include Kandinsky's Impression III (Concert) and The Colourful Life, Marc's Blue Horse I and Nude with Cat, Macke's Promenade, and Jawlensky's Portrait of the Dancer Alexander Sacharoff. The 19th-century Munich collection features artists such as Carl Spitzweg, Wilhelm Leibl, and Franz von Stuck, with works like Lovis Corinth's Self-portrait with Skeleton. New Objectivity is represented by Christian Schad and Rudolf Schlichter. In contemporary art, the museum holds an extensive Joseph Beuys collection centered on the environment Zeige deine Wunde, as well as Gerhard Richter's Atlas and installations by Olafur Eliasson and Isa Genzken. A notable legal settlement occurred in 2017 regarding Paul Klee's Swamp Legend, a work seized by the Nazis as degenerate art; the museum retained the painting while reimbursing the heirs of its original owner an estimated 2 to 4 million dollars.

The Lenbachhaus consists of the historic Lenbach villa and a modern extension. Gabriel von Seidl designed the original Florentine-style villa between 1887 and 1891, featuring a garden laid out by Max Kolb. Some of the original representative rooms, conveying the 19th-century magnificence of Lenbach's residence, have been preserved and are accessible to visitors. Hans Grässel expanded the building from 1927 to 1929, and a further extension by Heinrich Volbehr and Rudolf Thönnessen was added between 1969 and 1972. The 1972 wing was demolished during the 2009 to 2013 renovation led by Norman Foster of Foster + Partners. Foster relocated the main entrance to the Museumsplatz in front of the Propylaea, situating it between the old and new structures. The new facade is clad in metal tubes made of a copper-aluminum alloy designed to weather over time. The project, which cost approximately 63.3 million euros, included a new lighting concept developed by artist Dietmar Tanterl in collaboration with OSRAM using LED technology. The museum also utilizes the Kunstbau, a 110-meter-long underground exhibition space above the Königsplatz subway station designed by Kiessler + Partner and inaugurated in 1994, which hosts large special exhibitions.

The Lenbachhaus is located at Luisenstraße 33 in the Kunstareal München, a cultural district in Munich's Maxvorstadt where eighteen museums and exhibition halls are within walking distance. The museum is owned by the City of Munich and has been directed by Matthias Mühling since late 2013. It is part of the MuSeenLandschaft Expressionismus network, which includes the Buchheim Museum, the Franz Marc Museum, the Museum Penzberg, and the Schloßmuseum Murnau. The institution actively conducts provenance research on artworks created before 1945 that entered the collection after 1933, systematically reviewing the 6,603 artworks acquired between 1933 and 1945. It was the first German institution to restitute artworks in 1950, returning drawings to the heirs of Jewish collector Michael Berolzheimer. In addition to its main complex, the museum operates the Kubus im Petuelpark, a space opened in 2005 that hosts quarterly contemporary art exhibitions.