The Most Beautiful Museum in the World

Visited the exhibition "The Most Beautiful Museum in the World" in Essen. With these words Paul J. Sachs, American art historian and co-founder of the Museum of Modern Art in New York, described the Museum Folkwang during a visit to Essen in 1932. After the National Socialists took power a large part its collection was confiscated as "degenerated art" and sold. The exhibition aims at reconstructing, for the first time, the Museum Folkwang’s original collection. I thought it was an interesting exhibition and particularly enjoyed Franz Marcs "Grazing Horses IV (The Red Horses)" on loan from Harvard Art Museum as I had seen many of the other exhibited items during an earlier visit to Essen. A bit disappointing was the fact that, outside the exhibition halls, parts of the newly renovated museum were not quite finished, resulting in empty rooms without exhibited art. Bezoek gebracht aan de expositie "Das schönste Museum der Welt" in Essen. Deze expositie beoogt een reconstructie van de oorspronkelijke collectie van het Museum Folkwang tot 1933, waarna een groot deel ervan als "ontaarde kunst" door de nationaal-socialisten in beslag werd genomen en verkocht. Een beetje teleurstellend was het feit dat, buiten de expositieruimten, delen van het pas gerenoveerde museum nog niet ingericht waren, met lege zalen zonder tentoongestelde kunst tot gevolg.
(Das schönste Museum der Welt: Museum Folkwang bis 1933, Museum Folkwang Essen, 20.3.2010 - 22.7.2010)