History of the museum
The LWL-Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte, like museums in many other mercantile cities that had no access to a princely collection, was established during the Romantic period – in this case through the initiative of the Westphalian Art Association (Westfälischer Kunstverein) founded in 1832 and the Antiquity Association of Westphalia (Altertumsverein für Westfalen). Both associations created the basis for what was to become the central art museum in Westphalia.
The museum has been located in Münster’s town centre on Domplatz since 1908. An extension was added in 1970 in the style of the times. In May of 1999, the old building, which houses a large portion of the collection, was reopened after four years of extensive renovations. The State Museum is operated by the Regional Council of Westphalia-Lippe (Landschaftsverband Westfalen-Lippe, LWL), whose roots can be traced back to the tradition of self-administration in the Prussian provinces.
The museum’s historic holdings include important works of art dating back to the early Middle Ages and originating from Westphalia and neighbouring areas. The main strengths of the collection are Romanesque and Gothic architectural sculptures and early Westphalian panel painting, including such highlights as the Soest antependium, façade sculptures from the Überwasserkirche in Münster, the paintings of Conrad von Soest and Johann Koerbecke, the panels of Derick Baegert, and the works of the last great master of Westphalian sculpture, Heinrich Brabender. These holdings are complemented by the Freiherr vom Stein collection of stained glass from outside Westphalia, including the world-famous Romanesque windows by Master Gerlachus.
The museum also boasts an outstanding Renaissance collection, including works by the tom Ring family of painters from Münster (see Hermann tom Ring, Ludger tom Ring the Elder), as well as a masterpiece of German intarsia, the so-called ‘Wrangelschrank’. The major events in Westphalian history, such as the period of Anabaptist rule and the Peace of Westphalia, are reflected in the collection just as much as the baroque period itself. But alongside the older collections, the museum is also home to the Modern Gallery with its extensive collection of paintings ranging from German impressionism (e.g. Liebermann, Slevogt, and Corinth), expressionism (e.g. Brücke and Blauer Reiter, including in particular the work of Westphalia-born August Macke), and the Bauhaus period up to the art of the 1950s and the international avant-garde.
In recent years, a number of major retrospectives have attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world. The international exhibition Skulptur Projekte in 1977, 1987, and 1997, for instance, has become a much-imitated model for exploring the possibilities of art in public space. The Chaim Soutine retrospective in 1981 is still considered a benchmark today. And with a total of more than 300,000 visitors, the August Macke exhibition in 1987 helped establish the phenomenon of immensely popular temporary exhibitions. Finally, the retrospective of the American painter Ellsworth Kelly, which Münster staged in collaboration with the Centre Pompidou Paris and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, was hailed in the media as an outstanding example of international cooperation in the world of art.
Thus, what began long ago as a provincial museum dedicated to the preservation and analysis of Westphalian history and art – a tradition stemming from the cultural policies of Prussian self-administration – has become an institution of national and, indeed, international standing. It is a reputation that has grown based on our unique collections, innovative and compelling exhibitions, and the professionalism and dedication of our curators and staff.
The museum also has several major interdisciplinary departments, including the Regional History Department, the Numismatic Collection with its more than 100,000 exhibits, and the Diepenbroic Portrait Archive, which boasts over 120,000 portraits executed in a variety of graphic reproduction techniques. Since the spring of 1996, part of the museum’s collection has also been on display at the Bentlage Cloister. There, the newly founded Westphalian Gallery (Westfälische Galerie) exhibits works by Morgner, Hermann tom Ring, Rohlfs, Böckstiegel, and Macke, as well as from the new objectivity and abstraction movements in Westphalia up to the mid-twentieth century. Since May 2000, the permanent exhibition Der Freiherr vom Stein und Cappenberg has been on display at Schloss Cappenberg bei Lünen.
