NRW-Forum Düsseldorf

Redesigned by Oswald Mathias Ungers in 2001, the Museum Kunstpalast is situated in the centre of Dusseldorf, directly on the river Rhine. Since its re-opening, the museum has achieved international fame with numerous high-caliber exhibitions, including MIRO, DALI, WARHOL, CARAVAGGIO, EL GRECO AND MODERNISM and GURSKY. The Museum Kunstpalast collections are also highly regarded worldwide. These include the Gallery of Paintings with the acclaimed Rubens gallery, the Department of Prints and Drawings with more than 80,000 objects, the Sculpture Collection, Department of Modern Art and Glasmuseum Hentrich, which with over 10,000 works houses the most comprehensive glass collection in Europe. The Robert Schumann Saal is also part of the Museum Kunstpalast and has made a name for itself with its own ambitious program.

Added in early 2002 as the second main pillar of the Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen and accommodating contemporary art was the Standehaus am Kaiserteich, until 1988 the seat of the Parliament of North Rhine-Westphalia. Four wings with continuous arcades surround the building’s central public area, a spacious plaza. The creative treatment of this representative building in the Historicist style (1876-80) by the Munich architectural office of Kiessler + Partner created a modern museum building with a striking glaze domed roof which shapes the building’s aesthetic and at the same time spans an expansive sculpture garden located on the uppermost level. Together, a flexible hall for temporary exhibitions in the ground floor level and the upper galleries comprise more than 5300 m² of surface area.