Museum Kurhaus Kleve

Museum Kurhaus is located in Kleve’s former baths near the gardens, designed by Johann Moritz von Nassau-Siegen in the seventeenth century. The legacy of the sculptor, painter, and graphic artist Ewald Mataré forms the origin and basis of the extensive collection of modern and contemporary art. Mataré (1887-1965) is one of the most important representatives of modern art in Germany and, due to numerous public commissions and his teaching activity at the Düsseldorf arts academy, has essentially shaped the art scene in the Rhineland after the Second World War. Arranged in different sections on altogether 2,000 square meters, the collection of contemporary art starts in the 1950s and 1960s with works by, for example, Joseph Beuys, Karl Otto Götz, Christo, Yves Klein, Gerhard Richter, Heinz Mack, and Günther Uecker. It continues with more recent art, represented by names such as Stephan Balkenhol, Lothar Baumgarten, Martin Creed, Richard Tuttle, Isa Genzken, Franz Gertsch, Andreas Gursky, Richard Long, Mario Merz, Thomas Ruff, Richard Serra, Thomas Struth, Mark Tansey, and Jeff Wall. In addition, the museum houses an outstanding group of medieval wooden sculptures from the Lower Rhine, as well as a collection of early modern graphic art: the Robert Anghausen Collection. Visitors can also see a historical documentation on “Bad Cleve,” a popular spa town between 1742 and 1914. In 2004, the International Association of Art Critics (German section) awarded Museum Kurhaus Kleve the title “Museum of the Year.”