Around 175 years ago - on May 1, 1843 - today's Old State Gallery was opened as the "Museum of Fine Arts. The anniversary was an occasion for us to recount the eventful history of the museum and its collection using important milestones as examples. The focus was on the controversies, because at all times the institution museum struggled with society about its tasks.
Around 90 exemplary paintings, graphic works, photographs and archival materials trace the path of the Staatsgalerie to becoming a house of modern art for which it is internationally renowned.
Visitors were sent on a journey in time capsules that took them from the founding years, through the dawn of modernism - at the beginning of the 20th century - and the National Socialist era, to the opening of the New State Gallery in 1984 - with its reorientation into an exhibition house - and on into the future.
Curiosities such as a well-made copy of the Mona Lisa, which was initially thought to be an original work by Leonardo da Vinci, are as much a part of the history of the collection as the early and pioneering acquisition of French Impressionists or the "Stuttgart Museum Miracle" - the purchase of the Moltzau Collection with the help of the Toto Lotto Fund, which was set up specifically for this purpose. With the acquisition of 30 paintings of Classical Modernism from this collection, the Staatsgalerie advanced in one fell swoop to a collection of Modernism of European standing.
#meinMuseum
#freierEintritt
At the beginning and end was the call "#meinMuseum: We ask you!" Using the hashtag #meinMuseum, visitors were able to enter into a dialog with the Staatsgalerie and other interested parties about the museum, its holdings and the special exhibition via Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. What special experiences do you associate with the Staatsgalerie? What does your museum of the future look like?
All contributions were projected via a social media wall in the museum and thus became part of the exhibition themselves. Everyone could digitally 'like' their favorites in the collection, and every week the most voted favorite piece was presented in the original in the permanent collection.
"175 Years Staatsgalerie"
Audio app free to download
A very special audio guide led through the exhibition, which was created in collaboration with students of the music design course at the Trossingen University of Music and KLANGERFINDER Stuttgart. Sounds and specially composed pieces of music transported the visitor to the respective epochs. Texts on the history of the museum and the exhibits could also be called up on in-depth levels. This world of sound was an essential part of the exhibition experience and was available to everyone free of charge. For the first time, it was possible to download this offer as an app and to experience the exhibition as a synaesthetic experience with one's own smartphone and headphones.
A.T. Schaefer. BilderEchos
Stuttgart-based photographer A.T. Schaefer provides inspiration for capturing one's own view of the museum's works and sharing it with the real public via the social media wall. He has made a name for himself with photographs of opera and theater productions. For the anniversary exhibition, he has made the Staatsgalerie his stage. His photo series "BilderEchos" plays with the interaction of architecture, light, artwork and viewer. With a twinkle in his eye, he stages encounters between these 'actors'.
#Lieblingsstück der Woche
What is your favorite painting in the Staatsgalerie? Share it with us: Via our "Digital Collection." There you can vote for your favorites and view the current hit list. For the duration of "#meinMuseum," we will temporarily exhibit the most popular works of art - a different work every week! You can see which works have been exhibited so far here.
Explore all the exhibits in the exhibition from our collection:
Be a Curator
"Be a curator" is a new project of the Staatsgalerie, supported by the Karl Schlecht Foundation, in which students from the Kräherwald School engage with the museum as an institution. They gain insights into the various tasks involved in everyday museum life and get involved in the current exhibition project "#meinMuseum. 175 Years of the State Gallery." Among other things, the students develop a spatial concept for the columned hall of the Staatsgalerie that appeals to young people. For this, they have initiated an 'Open Stage' that enables encounters with different art forms. Communicating the exhibition to their peers - in classic guided tours or via social media - is also part of the project.
Made possible by the Karl Schlecht Foundation
The exhibition is sponsored by
Free admission for all!
Thanks to the civic commitment of the Friends of the Staatsgalerie, Feinkost Böhm Stuttgart and Breuninger, admission to the special exhibition and the collection is free for all visitors during the duration of "#meinMuseum"!
