Museum Kunst der Westküste
Encyclopedia
The Museum Kunst der Westküste (West Coast Art Museum) is a non-profit foundation
, located in Alkersum
on the north Frisian island
Föhr
. The museum collects, researches, communicates and exhibits art that deals with the themes of sea and coast. The point of departure is formed by the paintings collection of the museum’s founder, Prof. h.c. Frederik Paulsen
.
, German
, Dutch
and Norwegian
art. Executed between 1830 and 1930, the works document in a variety of manners what life is like along the continental North Sea
coast. They tell of the timeless grandeur of the sea, the longing for far-off horizons and man’s fear in the face of the intractable elements. Important Scandinavia
n and German artists of the 19th and 20th centuries are represented, including Anna Ancher
, Michael Ancher, Max Beckmann
, Johan Christian Dahl
, Peder Severin Krøyer
, Christian Krohg
, Max Liebermann
, Emil Nolde
and Edvard Munch
. These are joined by high-calibre Dutch painters such as the Romantic artist Andreas Schelfhout
as well as prominent exponents of The Hague School
, among them Jozef Israëls
and Hendrik Willem Mesdag
. Also in the collection are works by Johan Barthold Jongkind and Eugène Boudin
, who are regarded as precursors of impressionism
and were of central importance to the development of European landscape painting in the 19th century. Finally, a main focus of the collection is North Frisian painting, comprehensively represented by the works of Otto Heinrich Engel and Hans Peter Feddersen.
in a harmonious whole. Six separate galleries, designed to the highest standard, offer exhibition space of over 900 sqm.
The museum’s architecture
addresses local building and landscape history in a differentiated fashion by integrating existing buildings, quoting historical barns and making tangible to visitors the difference in levels between the sandy coastal heathlands and the lower marshland. The complex, built between 2006 and 2009, also includes a museum garden and “Grethjens Gasthof“, built in the style of a Scandinavian manor house
from the period around 1900. Carrying on its traditional function as a meeting place for artists working on Föhr
and as a site where natives and guests congregate, this building now houses the museum restaurant Grethjens Gasthof.
.
In 2011 Sunder-Plassmann Architekten were awarded the Architekturpreis Schleswig-Holstein.
In 2011 the museum received the red dot design award
for its corporate design.
Non-profit organization
Nonprofit organization is neither a legal nor technical definition but generally refers to an organization that uses surplus revenues to achieve its goals, rather than distributing them as profit or dividends...
, located in Alkersum
Alkersum
Alkersum is a municipality in the Nordfriesland district, in Schleswig-Holstein, northern Germany.-Politics:Since the communal elections of 2008, the Alkersumer Wählergemeinschaft holds all nine seats in the municipality council....
on the north Frisian island
North Frisian Islands
The North Frisian Islands are a group of islands in the Wadden Sea, a part of the North Sea, off the western coast of Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The German islands are in the traditional region of North Frisia and are part of the Schleswig-Holstein Wadden Sea National Park and the Kreis of...
Föhr
Föhr
Föhr is one of the North Frisian Islands on the German coast of the North Sea. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Föhr is the second-largest North Sea island of Germany....
. The museum collects, researches, communicates and exhibits art that deals with the themes of sea and coast. The point of departure is formed by the paintings collection of the museum’s founder, Prof. h.c. Frederik Paulsen
Frederik Paulsen Jr
Prof Dr hc mult Frederik Paulsen is an established businessman, academic, philanthropist and explorer.-Early life:Frederik Dag Arfst Paulsen was born on 30 October 1950 in Stockholm, Sweden. His father was Dr Frederik Paulsen Sr, the founder of Ferring Pharmaceuticals...
.
Collection
The Sammlung Kunst der Westküste (West Coast Art Collection) comprises DanishDenmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
, German
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Dutch
Netherlands
The Netherlands is a constituent country of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located mainly in North-West Europe and with several islands in the Caribbean. Mainland Netherlands borders the North Sea to the north and west, Belgium to the south, and Germany to the east, and shares maritime borders...
and Norwegian
Norway
Norway , officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic unitary constitutional monarchy whose territory comprises the western portion of the Scandinavian Peninsula, Jan Mayen, and the Arctic archipelago of Svalbard and Bouvet Island. Norway has a total area of and a population of about 4.9 million...
art. Executed between 1830 and 1930, the works document in a variety of manners what life is like along the continental North Sea
North Sea
In the southwest, beyond the Straits of Dover, the North Sea becomes the English Channel connecting to the Atlantic Ocean. In the east, it connects to the Baltic Sea via the Skagerrak and Kattegat, narrow straits that separate Denmark from Norway and Sweden respectively...
coast. They tell of the timeless grandeur of the sea, the longing for far-off horizons and man’s fear in the face of the intractable elements. Important Scandinavia
Scandinavia
Scandinavia is a cultural, historical and ethno-linguistic region in northern Europe that includes the three kingdoms of Denmark, Norway and Sweden, characterized by their common ethno-cultural heritage and language. Modern Norway and Sweden proper are situated on the Scandinavian Peninsula,...
n and German artists of the 19th and 20th centuries are represented, including Anna Ancher
Anna Ancher
Anna Ancher was a Danish artist associated with the Skagen Painters, an artists' colony in the very north of Jutland.-Background:...
, Michael Ancher, Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement...
, Johan Christian Dahl
Johan Christian Dahl
Johan Christian Claussen Dahl , often known as was a Norwegian landscape painter, who was connected to the Norwegian romantic nationalism. He is often considered have been "the father of Norwegian landscape painting"....
, Peder Severin Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer
Peder Severin Krøyer , known as P.S. Krøyer, was a Norwegian-Danish painter. He is one of the best known and beloved, and undeniably the most colorful of the Skagen Painters, a community of Danish and Nordic artists who lived, gathered or worked in Skagen, Denmark, especially during the final...
, Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg
Christian Krohg , was a Norwegian naturalist painter, illustrator, author and journalist.-Life and career:...
, Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann
Max Liebermann was a German-Jewish painter and printmaker best known for his etching and lithography.-Biography:...
, Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors...
and Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
. These are joined by high-calibre Dutch painters such as the Romantic artist Andreas Schelfhout
Andreas Schelfhout
Andreas Schelfhout was a Dutch painter, etcher and lithographer, known for his landscape paintings....
as well as prominent exponents of The Hague School
Hague School
The Hague School is the name given to a group of artists who lived and worked in The Hague between 1860 and 1890. Their work was heavily influenced by the realist painters of the French Barbizon school. The painters of the Hague school generally made use of relatively sombre colours, which is why...
, among them Jozef Israëls
Jozef Israëls
Jozef Israëls was a Dutch painter, and "the most respected Dutch artist of the second half of the nineteenth century".-Youth:...
and Hendrik Willem Mesdag
Hendrik Willem Mesdag
Hendrik Willem Mesdag was a Dutch marine painter.He was born in Groningen, the son of the banker Klaas Mesdag and his wife Johanna Wilhelmina van Giffen. Mesdag was encouraged by his father, an amateur painter, to study art...
. Also in the collection are works by Johan Barthold Jongkind and Eugène Boudin
Eugène Boudin
Eugène Boudin was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors.Boudin was a marine painter, and expert in the rendering of all that goes upon the sea and along its shores...
, who are regarded as precursors of impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
and were of central importance to the development of European landscape painting in the 19th century. Finally, a main focus of the collection is North Frisian painting, comprehensively represented by the works of Otto Heinrich Engel and Hans Peter Feddersen.
Architecture
The Museum was conceived according to plans by Sunder-Plassmann Architekten as a multipart museum complex uniting tradition and modernismModernism
Modernism, in its broadest definition, is modern thought, character, or practice. More specifically, the term describes the modernist movement, its set of cultural tendencies and array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society...
in a harmonious whole. Six separate galleries, designed to the highest standard, offer exhibition space of over 900 sqm.
The museum’s architecture
Architecture
Architecture is both the process and product of planning, designing and construction. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural and political symbols and as works of art...
addresses local building and landscape history in a differentiated fashion by integrating existing buildings, quoting historical barns and making tangible to visitors the difference in levels between the sandy coastal heathlands and the lower marshland. The complex, built between 2006 and 2009, also includes a museum garden and “Grethjens Gasthof“, built in the style of a Scandinavian manor house
Manor house
A manor house is a country house that historically formed the administrative centre of a manor, the lowest unit of territorial organisation in the feudal system in Europe. The term is applied to country houses that belonged to the gentry and other grand stately homes...
from the period around 1900. Carrying on its traditional function as a meeting place for artists working on Föhr
Föhr
Föhr is one of the North Frisian Islands on the German coast of the North Sea. It is part of the Nordfriesland district in the federal state of Schleswig-Holstein. Föhr is the second-largest North Sea island of Germany....
and as a site where natives and guests congregate, this building now houses the museum restaurant Grethjens Gasthof.
Awards
In 2011 the museum was nominated for the European Museum of the Year AwardEuropean Museum of the Year Award
The European Museum of the Year Award , established in 1977, is presented each year by the European Museum Forum , under the Council of Europe...
.
In 2011 Sunder-Plassmann Architekten were awarded the Architekturpreis Schleswig-Holstein.
In 2011 the museum received the red dot design award
Red dot design award
The Red Dot Design Award is an international product design prize awarded by the Design Zentrum Nordrhein Westfalen in Essen, Germany. There are prize categories for product design, design agencies, and design concepts. Since 1955, designers and producers can apply for the prizes with the winners...
for its corporate design.