- Künstlerische Druckgrafik in der RUHR GALLERY MÜLHEIM

Neben der Malerei entwickelte sich vor über 500 Jahren die Druckgrafik als bildnerisch handwerkliche Vervielfältigungstechnik, der sich unzählige Kunstschaffende quer durch die Kunstgeschichte verschrieben haben. Sie ist ein Sammelbegriff für zum Beispiel Tiefdruck, Hochdruck und Flachdruck - wie der sogenannten Radierung in verschieden technischen Bearbeitungsverfahren -oder dem Linol- oder Holzschnitt und der Lithografie. Die Möglichkeiten sind mannigfaltig und kombinierbar. Bis heute fasziniert die Menschen, was mit einfachen, aber komplexen analogen Mitteln geschaffen und zur Meisterleistung geführt werden kann - ein Angebot im immer stärker ausgeprägten digitalen Zeitalter. 

Auf diese Weise entstehen immer neue spannende Kunstwerke, die je nach Auflage einen größeren Kreis von Kunstliebhaber:innen erfreuen können - im Gegensatz zum Original, das nur einmal verfügbar und dementsprechend teuer ist. 

In dem von Anna Kaiser und Lukas Benedikt Schmidt (unser Foto) betreuten Projekt werden die alten Techniken anschaulich einer breiteren Öffentlichkeit zugänglich gemacht. Druck-Kurse auf Anfrage!

Galerie an der Ruhr / RUHR GALLERY MÜLHEIM 

Ruhrstraße 3 / Ecke Delle - 45468 Mülheim an der Ruhr 

SAMMLUNG DER RUHRPREISTRÄGERINNEN

UND RUHRPREISTRÄGER - BILDENDE KUNST IM MMKM

Seit 1962 wird in der Ruhrtalstadt Mülheim der heutige "Ruhrpreis für Kunst und Wissenschaft" verliehen.

Ursprünglich war er für die Bildende Kunst gestiftet und wurde später auf "Wissenschaft" ausgeweitet. 20 Jahre gab es dann keinen Preis für die Bildende Kunst.

Das Kunstmuseum Mülheim MMKM MUSEUM MODERNE KUNST MÜLHEIM sammelt Werke der Preisträgerinnen und Preisträger.

Ausgefallene Arbeiten von  Heinrich Siepmann, Carl Altena, Daniel Traub, Klaus Urbons, Herbert Prüßmann, Erik Mälzner, Hendrik Dorgathen, Heiner Schmitz, Ernst Rasche, Uwe-Dieter Bleil, Helmut Lankhorst, Johannes Geccelli, Eberhard Ross, Dirk Hupe und vielen weiteren sind in der STÄNDIGEN SAMMLUNG des MMKM zu bewundern.

Museum neu definiert

 
Das private Mülheimer Kunstmuseum "MMKM MUSEUM MODERNE KUNST MÜLHEIM" ist in erster Linie ein Ort der Begegnung und Besinnung - ein Zufluchtsort für das Bewahren des Schönen und zur Orientierung.  Wir treten dabei nicht in den heillosen Wettbewerb „schöner - größer – besser“  mit "Bling-Bling-Ausstellungen" ein - Kunst soll nicht nur unser Leben reflektieren, sondern direkt eingreifen!

Alle Kunstinteressierten sind im MMKM willkommen, Talente, Autodidakten oder Menschen mit Studium - mit oder ohne Abschluss bzw. Ausstellungshistorie -
oder Preisträger*innen. Es gibt keine Beschränkungen oder Ausgrenzungen.

Wir  machen  seit Jahren erfolgreich Verabredungen für Besuche und Führungen, denn auch jeder Konzertbesucher bucht ja ein Zeitfenster.

Wir erheben weder Eintritt noch Gebühren für Führungen und Kunstfahrten.

Unsere Vernissagen werden rechtzeitig angekündigt und sind offen für alle Menschen.

Wir sparen wertvolle Energie (Licht, Klima …) und achten auf die Ökologie -

das Haus ist bereits seit 2012 klimaneutral.  

Museale Ausstellung in der RUHRKUNSTHALLE:

ERFOLGREICH IN DER STADT MÜLHEIM AN DER RUHR - BILDENDE KUNST IN DER STADT AM FLUSS  - DIE RUHRTALSTADT MÜLHEIM LÄDT HERZLICH EIN!

Mit diesem Link zu den aktuellen Ausstellungen in der Kunststadt MH:

Dr. Christine Vogt, Director of LUDWIGGALERIE Schloss Oberhausen

Speech on July 2, 2023, at the opening of the exhibitions by Gerhard Losemann ("FORM+COLOR") and Klaus Wiesel ("NOW NEW") at the Galerie an der Ruhr/Mülheim

Dear Mr. Losemann, I am also delighted to be here, and I must say that the exhibition has turned out to be magnificent. What impressed me even more was your home, a work of art in itself, where one could truly see the richness and creativity of your life in the private spaces. And now, we get a glimpse of it here. One should actually start from the top. In the cabinet room, there are early ink drawings, early works, and as I looked at them, I thought, "Everything is already there!" Everything that later gets further elaborated in your works and finds its own facets is already present in these drawings. You can see the focus on lines, the light touch of drawing, the connection to nature, and in my favorite little drawing, a watercolor gradient in the background forming a transparent flow. These elements form the basis of his works, which, from my perspective, are as diverse as they are. So, once you have looked at these intricate patterns of lines and their ornamental moments, you can start with the larger pieces down below.

Of course, Gerhard Losemann is not just someone who has contributed significantly to cultural policy. We in Oberhausen owe him for the Artothek and the excellent setup of the art school. Many people from Oberhausen have him to thank for learning graphic art, learning about art, and learning to draw. It's wonderful that all of this is still united here in the castle. We thank him sincerely for that.

But he is also someone who has created impressive monuments. Let's stay in my city for a moment: When you walk out of the train station, Oberhausen-West, you enter a difficult neighborhood called Altenberg. They wanted to beautify the area, but they discovered that the zinc factory had left all its waste in the ground - contaminants, special burdens - so they had to build a wall. And Gerhard Losemann went there and created a rotation of steles titled "Movement," which are specially illuminated, playing with light and darkness, something significant in his works, and breaking open the rigidity, especially the brick wall that trapped all the toxic elements behind it. He opened it up, made it more inviting, transforming a place that was not pleasant, perhaps even frightening, into a place with greatly improved amenities.

Another sculpture was the fountain in Sterkrade, where he created a water feature. As you can see in the designs, Gerhard Losemann always relates his works to nature. In this fountain, there is a tree that he refers to. There is always a sensitive engagement with the location and the environment. For example, in this fountain, he incorporated the curvature of the existing cobblestones. Then came the water feature, which - and here again, his preference for lines - flowed out through clear, smooth lines, forming a kind of grid or diagonal parallel structure. This recurring theme is also found in his paintings and other works.

There are other sculpture projects as well, notably in Duisburg. Not too long ago, he designed the memorial for the Love Parade disaster, featuring falling steles and crossbeams symbolizing the people who were crushed in that terrible situation.

He also created a monument for Jewish children near the train station, using a square column. This time, there is writing involved, along with an interior and exterior aspect, and something - also present in the fountain installations - that addresses the ears. The panels displaying the names of the victims, situated within the Corten steel walls surrounding them, move when the wind blows, producing a sound, and, as they say, perhaps giving a voice, a word, a sound to the deceased. I find this to be a very sensitive work, dealing with a difficult topic and created in a unique way.

So, he is a great sculptor who has received many commissions for significant sculptural works - something that is not common. But he has mainly worked in the field of printmaking. As you walk through the exhibition, you can see that he has become something of a master of C-prints, using the computer to further develop his art. Fortunately, this exhibition is structured to not only show his early hand drawings and ink drawings, which provide insight into his origins, but also features Gerhard Losemann's material paintings. From an art historical perspective, it is fascinating to explore the 1970s and 1980s when painting was considered dead, and something new had to emerge. Gerhard Losemann truly broke the boundaries of painting, going beyond the frames, cutting the canvases, and incorporating materials to create collages or assemblages. They include various materials, often metal, and elements like tubes or elongated shapes that resemble strokes. And again, nature is a recurring theme.

When you look at these material paintings, you often find a horizon, or in many cases, multiple horizons, where you can peer into the depth, having a background extending to the horizon, and then a sort of sky, although not the classic blue sky with white fluffy clouds. Instead, it is an arrangement of landscapes, sometimes disrupted, perhaps enriched, by the use of other materials, reflecting a critical view of nature, environmental destruction, and the increasing environmental damage we are facing today, which we finally understand as a real threat, not just some whimsical idea. This theme has been emphasized consistently in his paintings.

One recurring element, perhaps a sort of signature or distinguishing mark of Gerhard Losemann's work, is the yellow-black boat or a rudimentary, sometimes almost transparent shape. It serves as a warning sign - we at the museum always use it to mark potential hazards, leading to endless discussions with the security staff. It's something that indicates: "Hey, there might be some danger here, we need to be careful." It appears repeatedly in his works, connecting with nature and other elements that come into play.

As I said before, he is a sculptor, a collagist, and most importantly, a master printer. He not only practiced various printmaking techniques, like at the art school, but also taught them to many people, which is an important role. He continued this teaching, even embracing new techniques from the 2000s, such as computer-based works, where he scanned or inputted previous works and further processed them digitally. You can see various works in different sizes in this exhibition, including many recent pieces from 2020.

I notice once again that there is a significant question of aesthetic inquiry present there, precisely what can also be found in all the other artworks, the question of color and form - which is rightfully the focus of this exhibition. The grid we saw in the drawings earlier, mostly in a relatively soft form, now reappears in the assemblages as a raster form. And now, there's the element of pixels, naturally associated with computers. It truly represents a new form, a new type of aesthetics, with a wide range of possibilities, from gradients and blurriness to clear shapes and structures. It's another aspect to explore: what can an image be, how can aesthetics be, perhaps practiced previously in painting and now with the use of computers and technical tools - which, from my perspective, seems to be just another, different technique, just like when one decides to paint, create a screen print, woodcut, or lithograph.

So, in this case, the decision is to embrace the computer, resulting in a new inquiry and a new aesthetics, with a strong focus on surface and the exploration of gradients and special nuances. You can take your time to explore it yourself.

I'll add a few more sentences about what you can expect upstairs. Since we are talking about surfaces: Klaus Wiesel has set up all the new works under the title "NOW NEW!" upstairs, which also revolves around structures - in that sense, it fits wonderfully, even though the structures are entirely different. "Now new on metal" repeatedly raises the question of rust as an artist. Things are etched into it, as we have a lot of rusty steel here - Corten steel, which Gerhard Losemann has also used. In the most beautiful shades of green, depending on whether it's on copper or another material, with significant, perhaps even ornate elements, you can also explore additional surface phenomena upstairs. It's a very, very lovely combination.

Dear Mr. Losemann, we are eagerly looking forward to the two fountain or outdoor sculpture designs still in the showcase. I would say we are excited about them, and when they are here, we will all pilgrimage there to take a look. Congratulations on this beautiful exhibition!