Collection
The collection of the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen comprises over 5,000 works, mainly from the 20th and 21st centuries. The beginnings of the art collection date back to the 1920s, when the Vestisches Museum was founded and began to collect so-called "modern art" alongside local history and historical objects. As early as 1937, the fledgling collection was decimated because the Nazis had 37 works defamed as "degenerate" removed from the museum, including paintings by Peter August Böckstiegel, Käthe Kollwitz, Wilhelm Morgner, Christian Rohlfs and Max Schulze-Sölde. Further works of art fell victim to the destruction of the war and so the end of the Second World War also meant an absolute new beginning for Recklinghausen's exhibition and collection activities. A major focus of the collection is on works by the artist group »junger westen« founded in Recklinghausen in 1947 as well as German Informel, on prizewinners of the art prize »junger westen« and on a concentrated collection of »naive art«, mainly from the Ruhr region. Despite limited acquisition funds, the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen's collection is growing continuously. In addition to new acquisitions of works by the winners of the »junger westen« art prize, donations from private collections and artists, as well as permanent loans, for example from the art holdings of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, have significantly rounded off the collection in recent years.