May 7 – August 13, 2017

An hommage to the 70th anniversary

Exhibition of the Ruhrfestspiele 2017

Opening: May 7, 2017 at 11 am

The passionate but also highly controversial debate about how contemporary art could be integrated into the construction of a democratic society after dictatorship and war also characterised the founding phase of the Künstleruppe junger westen. Its history is closely linked to the Ruhr Festival and the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen, which was founded in a bunker in 1950.
The planned exhibition traces the path of the group of artists from figurative art to abstraction: art as a reflection of a tabula rasa situation in order to conquer new forms of expression, initially hesitantly and then with a strong gesture. In abstraction, the post-war zeitgeist demanding freedom found its artistic counterpart - and gave the young West a contemporary expression of the attitude to life in the industrialised region of the Rhine and Ruhr.

The cultural devastation of the Nazi dictatorship, the devastation caused by war and fascism had left a void that could only be filled in Germany with a time lag. Photographs and written documents, the history of the founding of the Ruhrfestspiele and the Kunsthalle, the European idea to which both theatres were committed from the outset and the first contacts abroad will form the historical backdrop.
We are planning ‘experience spaces’ consisting of the interplay of visual art, documentary photography, text documents and events. They will bring to life the history of JUNGEN WESTEN, the Ruhrfestspiele and thus also the city of Recklinghausen, which celebrates its 1000th anniversary in 2017.

Exhibition management:
Prof. Dr. Ferdinand Ullrich
Dr. Hans Jürgen Schwalm

A voluminous catalogue has been published:
Ullrich, Ferdinand, Hans-Jürgen Schwalm: junger westen - Auf dem Weg zur Avantgarde, Kerber-Verlag, Dortmund 2017, 184 S., Hardcover, 20,- Euro