Kunsthalle Messmer


The Kunsthalle Messmer is a museum in Riegel am Kaiserstuhl in the rooms of the former. Art of the 20th and 21st centuries is shown in temporary exhibitions on around 900 m² of exhibition space. The museum includes an 850 m² sculpture garden with plastics by contemporary artists Gerald Baschek,,, Friedrich Geiler, Bernhard Licini,, Michel Jouët and.

Foundation

In 2005, the former entrepreneur and art collector Jürgen A. Messmer founded the messmer foundation as a dedication to his daughter Petra, who died of cancer in 2003. The foundation is the institution behind the museum, which opened in June 2009. Every year, up to three exhibitions of classical modern art and contemporary art are presented. Exhibits from its own collection as well as loans from international private and museum collections are on display. In 1978 Messmer succeeded in acquiring large parts of the estate of the Swiss artist André Evard. Throughout his life he painted figuratively and abstractly and was regarded as a pioneering painter of Swiss Modernism.
Through the artist, the entrepreneur found concrete-constructive art, which today forms the focus of his collection. The first exhibition of the kunsthalle messmer was a homage to Evard and showed only his works. In addition, the International André Evard Art Award, founded by Messmer, was named to honor the artist.

Exhibitions (selection)

In addition to the estate of André Evard, the Messmer art collection includes works by Max Bill, Georges Braque, Salvador Dalí, Otto Dix, Günter Fruhtrunk, François Morellet, A. R. Penck, Pablo Picasso, Gerd Grimm, Sonia Delaunay, Joan Miró and Victor Vasarely. Including these works, the museum has presented the following exhibitions, among others:
In 2013, Jürgen A. Messmer expanded the Kunsthalle to include a commercial gallery in the historic columned room of the former brewery, which sees itself as a platform for young artists. The programme includes works from the fields of concrete-constructive art and figurative painting or sculpture.