The fountain hall forms the heart of the Osthaus Museum. It was designed by the Belgian Art Nouveau artist Henry van de Velde on behalf of Hagen's patron of the arts Karl Ernst Osthaus. The faithfully reconstructed interior gives this and the other rooms of the original Folkwang Museum, which opened in Hagen in 1902, a special splendor to this day. The Osthaus Museum shows its permanent exhibition here. The focus is on art from around 1900 and in particular the works of important expressionists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke and Franz Marc. The Osthaus Museum Hagen has around 1000 works of painting, almost 800 sculptures and sculptures and around 250 artist's objects. In addition, there are over 5000 works on paper, almost 700 works of applied art and over 100 installations. Sigrid Sigurdsson's space-filling presentation "Architecture of Memory" offers an extraordinary museum experience. It brings together around 2000 portfolios, books and object boxes on the first floor of the historic old building. The spatial installation focuses on the phenomenon of memory and questions the awareness of history, addressing and involving visitors in a variety of ways. On the upper floor, a room is dedicated to the works of the painter Christian Rohlfs, of whom the Osthaus Museum owns around 500 works. The Expressionist Room is also located here, as well as changing presentations from the collection of international, contemporary, non-objective color painting, which has been built up since the 1990s.
A children's and youth museum has been established in the historical part of the building under the name "Junges Museum" (Young Museum), which invites young and old to engage in practical discussions and contributes to intercultural understanding through projects. For adults, there are changing events such as the art meeting, lectures and chamber concerts. In addition, public guided tours are dedicated to the current exhibitions and the history of the museum. The program also includes joint explorations of places of Hagen's impulse such as the Art Nouveau Villa Hohenhof, the architecturally exciting Wehringhausen district or Peter Behrens' crematorium.
The Osthaus Museum has a total of almost 2,500 square meters of exhibition space. The current program can be found at www.osthausmuseum.de
Text: Melanie Redlberger
Photos: Tobias Roch, Hagen