Made in Düssel­dorf #7

PERSPECTIVES. Photographs from the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s Art Collection

12 Sept – 26 Oct 2025

Made in Düssel­dorf #7

Date

12 Sept – 26 Oct 2025

Location

» Kunstpalast
  • Admission: free / concessions free

  • Children / young people under 18: free

  • Members of Friends of the Kunstpalast: free

Katharina Sieverding, Looking at the sun at midnight, 1973
Katharina Sieverding, Looking at the sun at midnight, 1973

Made in Düsseldorf is an exhibition series organised by the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf in cooperation with the Kunstpalast and the NRW-Forum. It is dedicated to contemporary artists who are connected to Düsseldorf and the Rhineland through their studies, their place of residence or their artistic content.

The seventh exhibition, titled BLICKWINKEL (Perspectives), features photographic works from the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s art collection. The presentation will be supplemented by works by Tata Ronkholz loaned from a private collection in Düsseldorf.

Over time, photography has evolved from a purely documentary technique designed to capture the world in images into a versatile medium of expression with considerable scope for interpretation. Spanning three chapters and featuring six artists, the exhibition presents different – sometimes contrasting – approaches with a variety of techniques and perspectives on artistic photography as a form of documentation or expression.

Erica Baum, Edge 33 (Patterns), 2019
Erica Baum, Edge 33 (Patterns), 2019

Erica Baum and Rita McBride both significantly enlarge their subject matter in order to emphasise its form.They invite viewers to interrogate what is being depicted and its meaning or function.
Bernd and Hilla Becher devoted themselves to documentary photography. The artist couple – as well as their former students Boris Becker and Tata Ronkholz – adopt a similar frontal, central perspective in their photographs of buildings, which allows comparisons to be drawn between the photographs. At the same time, it becomes clear that Boris Becker and Tata Ronkholz pursued their own artistic paths from an early stage.
Katharina Sieverding is not interested in documenting a supposed reality, but rather in challenging photography’s claim to represent it. By artistically transforming and distorting her large-format self-portraits, she draws attention to the social, political and structural challenges of her time.

Tata Ronkholz, Düsseldorf-Flingern, Lindenstrasse 107
Tata Ronkholz, Düsseldorf-Flingern, Lindenstrasse 107

Commitment to the Kunstpalast/NRW-Forum

The Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf has been supporting the NRW-Forum in its exhibition and education projects as a partner of the institution since 2017. This year marks the first time that the exhibition is being shown at the Kunstpalast since the NRW-Forum merged with it in 2020. Promoting the arts and supporting cultural institutions in Düsseldorf represent an important part of the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s social commitment.

The Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s art collection was launched in the 1970s by Fritz Kulins, then chairman of the board. The first works found their way into the collection through corporate exhibitions. The works added to the collection were primarily by students at the art academy, but also by important representatives of the Düsseldorf art scene.

In 2008, a cooperation with the Kunstpalast resulted in the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s collection at the Kunstpalast. With these new acquisitions and the focus on the medium of photography, the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf is helping the Kunstpalast to expand its photography collection. In the annual Made in Düsseldorf exhibition, a selection of these new acquisitions – which are based on recommendations made by Linda Conze, the head of the photography collection at the Kunstpalast – are presented to the public. This year, four new acquisitions from the previous year are on display: three works by Rita McBride and a photograph by Tata Ronkholz.

Curator: Esther Breinig, curator of the Stadtsparkasse Düsseldorf’s art collection

Accompanying Programme