Kunstmuseen Krefeld, Art museum complex in Krefeld, Germany.
Kunstmuseen Krefeld is an art museum network in Krefeld, Germany, made up of three separate buildings: the Kaiser Wilhelm Museum in the city center and two residential villas, Haus Lange and Haus Esters, in the Bockum neighborhood. Together they hold a collection of around 24,000 works covering a wide range of periods.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Museum was founded in 1897 and served as the starting point of what would grow into a larger network. Decades later, two private homes designed by Ludwig Mies van der Rohe were added to the group and converted for use as exhibition spaces.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Museum holds works ranging from medieval art to pieces made today, with a notable focus on Art Nouveau and Rhenish Expressionism. Walking through the galleries, visitors can follow how artistic ideas shifted over the centuries in the Rhine region.
The Kaiser Wilhelm Museum is open year-round as the main venue, while Haus Lange and Haus Esters only open during temporary exhibitions. It is worth checking in advance which of the three buildings will be accessible on the day you plan to visit.
Haus Lange and Haus Esters were built in the late 1920s as private family homes, not as exhibition spaces, and they were lived in for years before becoming part of the museum network. Visitors can still notice the domestic scale of the rooms, which gives the experience of viewing art there a very different feel from a traditional gallery.
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