Museum Ulm


The Museum Ulm, founded in 1924, is a museum for art, archeology, urban and cultural history in Ulm, Germany.
Exhibitions range from the Archaeological Collection with finds from the prehistory and early history of the Ulm region, to paintings and sculptures created during the Late - or International Gothic art period and the Renaissance in Ulm and Upper Swabia. Collections of 16th to 19th century artisan works of Ulm's handicraft guilds are also presented. Conservator and university professor Julius Baum became the founding director and first art historian of the museum on 1 April 1924. According to his successor Erwin Treu, this started the real history as an institute emerged from a junk room.

Exhibits

Prehistory

The museum's permanent archaeological exhibition was redesigned in 2014 after further fragments of a 35,000 to 41,000-year-old mammoth ivory sculpture were recovered at the original site in the Lone Valley. The partly animal, partly human figure is called the Lion-man and represents an upright standing human with the head and the limbs of a cave lion. In an extremely complex restoration process in 2012/13, the figurine was completely re-assembled from over 300 fragments and has since revealed new details.
In addition to the lion-man from the Hohlenstein-Stadel cave, the prehistoric environment of the Swabian Jura mountains is also documented. Numerous exhibits from the Upper Paleolithic to the Neolithic period, including the finds from the neighboring Bockstein Cave are shown. There is, above all, the exhibit of a Neanderthal thigh bone, the only substantial piece of evidence of this species ever found in Baden-Württemberg. Also on display are the artefacts of Mesolithic burials of the Bockstein Cave and the Hohlenstein-Stadel.

Middle Ages and Modernity

Many works of important representatives of the Late Gothic Ulm School are presented in the museum. A chronology of the region's International Gothic art period has been demonstrated, supported by valuable exhibits beginning with Meister Hartmann and Hans Multscher to Martin Schaffner, Michel Erhart, Hans Schüchlin, Jörg Stocker, Niklaus Weckmann, Bartholomäus Zeitblom to Daniel Mauch. The Late Gothic cultural landscape of Upper Swabia and the Allgäu is illustrated by the works of Bernhard Strigel and others, which allows valuable direct style studies and comparisons.
Representative works of artists of the 20th and 21st centuries also belong to the Ulm collection, among them Paul Klee, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, August Macke and Franz Marc. A highlight is the superb international Kurt Fried Collection. Amongst publisher Kurt Fried's 1959 to 1981 private collection the visitor will find works by Frank Stella, Mark Rothko, Roy Lichtenstein, Günther Uecker, Yves Klein, Daniel Spoerri, Josef Albers, Max Bill and Gerhard Richter.
The museum presents a variety of exhibitions in order to make the complicated relations among Ulm's Late Gothic artists come to light. The focus of research is on the Ulm families of artists around Hans Multscher, Jörg Syrlin the Elder, Jörg Syrlin the Younger, Michel Erhart, Gregor Erhart and Daniel Mauch.
Since November 14, 1999 there has been a new presentation in the extension building on the subject of European and American Art after 1945. In addition, 20th century graphic art and Modernity are presented in temporary exhibitions.

Galleries

Friends of the Ulm Museum

The association of Friends of the Ulm Museum was founded in 1982 in Ulm. Its members support the particular concerns of the Ulm Museum and promote its scientific work.

Special exhibitions (selection)