Is 40 years a long time? Well, there are older museums. But when one considers how many generations of children have grown up during this time and have had their first contact with art here in this often visited museum, then four decades is quite a long time.

Let’s broadly take the number of visitors and artists or the exhibitions and the artworks throughout all the years in Kunstmuseum Kloster Unser Lieben Frauen – the figures are immense. It speaks for the interest in art and tells us about this special place in the history and presence of Magdeburg.

It was 1975 when the city council decided to convert the monastery of Our Lady into the city’s art museum. From the beginning, the content-related aspirations of the exhibitions and art collections were aligned on a national scale. That applied for the time before 1989 as well as after. The permanent exhibition of international contemporary art, housed in the former refectory (the so-called upper barrel vault), clearly reflects this aspiration.

We would like to take the past 40 years in review and emphasize what has helped the Kunstmuseum achieve its high status throughout the years. Today, it is seen as one of the most renowned locations for the portrayal of contemporary art in Germany. Against the backdrop of the museum’s historical and modern room, it is first and foremost worth mentioning the names of numerous artists, from which this esteem derives from.

Artists:
Claudio Abate, Siegfried Anzinger, Johanna Bartl, Laura Bielau, Kurt Buchwald, Ernesto Burgos, Johan Creten, Hartwig Ebersbach, Wieland Förster, Ruth Francken, Hermann Glöckner, Sabina Grzimek, Friedrich B. Henkel, Irma Hünerfauth, Franz Johannknecht, Sven Johne, Rashid Johnson, Koji Kamoji, Max Lachnit, Reinhold Langner, Mario Lobedan, Lucebert, David Lynch, Maix Mayer, Bjørn Melhus, Jenny Mucchi-Wiegmann, Chris Newman, Jewyo Rhii, Michael Schmidt, Baldur Schönfelder, Jochen Seidel, Hito Steyerl, Werner Stötzer, Beat Streuli, Sean Snyder, Niele Toroni, Susan Turcot, Max Uhlig, Olaf Wegewitz, Tobias Zielony