The Kunsthalle Recklinghausen can draw on a collection of more than 5,000 works. A key focus is on the works of the artist group »junger westen«, founded in Recklinghausen in 1947, and the continuously purchased winners of the art prize of the same name, as well as on a concentrated collection of kinetic art, German informal art and, last but not least, so-called “outsider art“ (“Naive Kunst“ in German) from the environment of the Miners, mainly from the Ruhr area. The question of whether or not these terms still apply today is also relevant to this exhibition.
In the new presentation, "At first sight", the collection establishes for the first time formal relationships between its different focal points as well as bringing to light works from the depots that have never been shown or have not been on view for a long time.
The title "At first sight" not only alludes to the proverbial "love at first sight", which might actually when seeing the works in the collection, but also represents the curatorial and structural modus operandi: they were selected for the first time by museum director Nico Anklam since he took office in the summer of 2021 from the large pool of the municipal collection. The public perception of the Kunsthalle Recklinghausen as a collecting museum has so far lagged behind the contemporary exhibition program of the Kunsthalle. This show intends to change this