Koloniale Sammlungen in Kunstmuseen

For the first time, this project will analyse the provenance of collection items from colonial contexts in art museums and artists' estates. Through the prism of the collections of the artists of the "Brücke" and their wide-ranging networks, the actors, platforms and strategies of the art trade between 1900 and around 1960 in Germany and, as far as possible, to the societies of origin. The focus of the research, in accordance with the collections under investigation, is on holdings from former German colonial contexts in Cameroon and Papua New Guinea.

The archives of the Brücke Artists' Museum in Berlin, the Emil and Ada Nolde Foundation in Seebüll and the Folkwang Museum in Essen will be examined and the estates of the Brücke artists Heckel and Pechstein will be consulted. For an initial analysis of the circulation of objects in the Brücke artists' environment, the remaining archives of the most important German art dealers of the time, Konietzko family and the J.F.G. Umlauff company will be consulted. Collaborations with experts from the cultures of origin are to be initiated.

© Universität zu Köln