February 21 – April 3, 2016

Naive Art from Poland

An exhibition project from the RuhrKunstMuseen

To mark the reopening of the private museum of modern Polish art on Petruskirchplatz in Recklinghausen, the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen is showing a selection of 20th century Polish naïve art from its own collection as a welcome gift. The works are characterised by both profane and religious themes. The focus is on small wooden sculptures in free-plastic technique and as reliefs.

For more than six decades, naive art has been a focal point of the Recklinghausen museums' exhibitions and collections. Its long-standing director Thomas Grochowiak pursued the idea of establishing a naive art gallery in the early 1950s to replace the folk art department of the Vestisches Museum, which had been destroyed in the Second World War. From the very beginning, he was also responsible for the art exhibitions at the Ruhr Festival and, as early as 1953, presented paintings by naive artists - then still called ‘Sunday painters’ - from Henri Rousseau and Séraphine Louis to the ‘painting miners on the Ruhr’ alongside masterpieces of Romanticism and European Modernism under the title Work - Leisure - Leisure. The exhibitions of the Ruhr Festival, which took place in the Recklinghausen ‘Kunstbunker’, the municipal art gallery, repeatedly initiated this fruitful dialogue and, in just a few years, turned the building into a centre for naive art and a meeting place for amateur artists. 

In 1956, work began on building up a collection that now comprises over 800 works, including numerous works by authentic Polish naive artists such as Nikifor Krynicki, Teofil Ociepka and Katarzyna Gawłowa, Jan Lamecki and Adam Zegadło. The reopening of the Jerke Museum of 20th and 21st Century Polish Art in the centre of Recklinghausen is an opportunity to present the Recklinghausen museums' collection of Polish naïve art, supplemented by important loans from public and private collections.

The Kunstmuseum Bochum and the Skulpturenmuseum Glaskasten Marl are also taking part in this series of exhibitions of Polish art, which is a project of the RuhrKunstMuseen.

Opening Hours
Tickets
* Pupils, Apprentices, Students, Groups from 10 persons, Owners of the Recklinghausen Pass i.e. any other equivalent identification card from other municipalites, Owners of the Ehrenamtskarte NRW or the Jubiläums-Ehrenamtskarte NRW
The Kunsthalle is barrier-free accesible.
Guided Tours
The public guided tours are free of charge, only the entrance fee needs to be paid.

Per group (20 persons max.) a booked guided tour is 55,- Euro. Registration via tel. (02361) 50 19 35.
Address
Approach
The Kunsthalle is located across the central station, close to the bus station and is accessible via all public transportations. An underground park station is located underneath the bus station.