Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg

The Museum im Kulturspeicher Würzburg is a municipal museum of modern and contemporary art located in Würzburg, Bavaria, Germany. Opened in 2002, it houses two distinct collections: the Städtische Galerie, a municipal art collection with roots dating to 1941, and the Peter C. Ruppert Collection of European concrete art from after World War II to the present. The museum occupies a converted riverside warehouse and presents art from the 19th century to the present across approximately 3,500 square metres of exhibition space. It received the Bayerischer Museumspreis in 2005 and celebrated its twentieth anniversary in 2022.

The museum's origins lie in the Städtische Galerie, founded in 1941 under the direction of Heiner Dikreiter, who had been assembling holdings since the 1920s. The Galerie was officially opened in its rebuilt premises in 1966. Between 1996 and 2001, the architectural firm Brückner & Brückner of Tischenreuth converted a disused grain warehouse from 1904 into the Kulturspeicher cultural centre. The museum opened to the public in 2002, integrating the Städtische Sammlung into its new premises. Marlene Lauter served as director for nearly three decades until her retirement in 2020. Luisa Heese succeeded her from September 2020 until July 2023, when she became curator of contemporary art at the Kunsthalle Mannheim. Marcus Andrew Hurttig, previously curator for modern and contemporary art at the Museum der bildenden Künste Leipzig since 2011, became director on 1 March 2024. The museum marked its twentieth anniversary on 22 February 2022 with a year-long programme of events and performances.

The museum's holdings are divided between two principal collections. The Städtische Sammlung, with originally regional focus, encompasses art from the 19th century to the present, with particular strengths in Biedermeier portraits and landscapes, German impressionism, works by painters of the Berlin Secession, and art associated with the Leibl circle. It also maintains significant graphic holdings of approximately 30,000 works. The Peter C. Ruppert Collection presents concrete art from 22 to 23 European countries, with emphases on post-1945 Swiss art and geometric abstraction in Paris. The Ruppert collection is notable for its substantial group of British concrete artists and its section on concrete photography. In 2024, the museum received a donation of concrete graphic works from Heidi Bierwisch, comprising prints by 118 artists, including 25 also represented in the Ruppert collection. The museum also holds correspondence and estates of several artists, including Ludwig von Gleichen-Rußwurm, Hans Reichel, and Emy Roeder.

The Städtische Sammlung includes works by German impressionists such as Max Slevogt, whose Pfälzer Landschaft of 1923 is held, and Ludwig von Gleichen-Rußwurm. Other represented artists include Karl Heffner, Robert Breyer, Philipp Franck, Walter Leistikow, Joseph Oppenheimer, Hans Reichel, and members of the Weimar Saxon-Grand Ducal Art School. The collection also holds works by Bauhaus painter Hans Reichel and from the estate of sculptor Emy Roeder, whose work has been compared to that of Ernst Barlach. A dedicated room contains paintings of Würzburg before its wartime destruction, including Erich Heckel's Blick auf die Veste Marienberg. Contemporary holdings include Stephan Balkenhol's Großes Kopfrelief Mann und Frau of 2000, and works by Magdalena Jetelová, Camill Leberer, Dieter Stein, Rudolf Wachter, and Barbara Camilla Tucholski. The Ruppert collection features major concrete artists including Max Bill, Hans Arp, Anthony Caro, Günter Fruhtrunk, Auguste Herbin, Richard Paul Lohse, Bridget Riley, Victor Vasarely, and others. The museum also preserves a number of acquisitions from 1941-1945 that included works shown at the Große Deutsche Kunstausstellung of 1939, such as pieces by Peter Scheurle, Fritz Ruß, Arno Breker, Moritz Horn-Stauffer, and Hermann Joachim Pagels.

The museum is housed in the Kulturspeicher, a listed harbour warehouse located on the Alter Hafen, a canal excavated parallel to the River Main. The original natural stone grain silo, built in 1904, measured 128 metres in length; during conversion, it was extended with new construction to 160 metres. The building's northern tract houses the Städtische Sammlung, while the southern tract contains the Peter C. Ruppert Collection. The Ruppert collection galleries occupy six rooms totalling 1,850 square metres. Special exhibitions are presented in 460 square metres of dedicated space. The building redevelopment preserved the industrial character of the warehouse while adapting it for museum use.

The Museum im Kulturspeicher is located in Würzburg, Germany, with further information available through its website at www.kulturspeicher.de. The museum is certified by Reisen für Alle and is largely barrier-free in its construction. It offers inclusive services including tactile models, a website in plain language, an inclusive app, and videos in German Sign Language, with further expansion planned. The museum is a member of the Netzwerk Museen inklusive. The Peter C. Ruppert Prize for Concrete Art in Europe, endowed with 15,000 euros by the Peter C. Ruppert Foundation, is awarded triennially by the city of Würzburg in connection with the museum. Previous recipients include François Morellet (2008), Heijo Hangen (2011), Dóra Maurer (2013), Hans Jörg Glattfelder (2016), and Norman Dilworth (2019).