Schirn Kunsthalle

The SCHIRN KUNSTHALLE FRANKFURT is one of Europe's most renowned exhibition institutions. Since 1986, more than 180 exhibitions have been realized, among them major surveys dedicated to Vienna Art Nouveau, Expressionism, Dada and Surrealism, to "Women Impressionists" and the history of photography, to subjects like shopping and the relationship between art and consumerism, the visual art of the Stalin era, the Nazarenes, or the new Romanticism in present-day art. Artis ts such as Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Alberto Giacometti, Frida Kahlo, Bill Viola, Arnold Schönberg, Henri Matisse, Julian Schnabel, James Lee Byars, Yves Klein, and Carsten Nicolai were presented in comprehensive solo shows. The SCHIRN, with Max Hollein as director, presents explosive issues and topical aspects of artistic oeuvres in a concise language under contemporary aspects. Being a venue of discoveries, the SCHIRN offers both sides to its visitors: an original sensuous experience and committed involvement in cultural discussion.

HISTORY

The name of the Schirn Kunsthalle is historical. The German word "Schirn" originally meant an open-air stall for selling goods. Until the end of the Second World War, there was a Schirn street at the downtown location where the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt has been located since 1986. Well into the nineteenth century the sellers' stands of the Frankfurt butchers' guild were situated "an der Schern." After the destruction of the old town in 1944 this downtown area remained unreconstructed for the next thirty-seven years. The Schirn's complex of buildings, designed and planned by the architectural firm of Bangert, Jansen, Scholz & Schultes and with an exhibition space of 2000 m2, created a modern connection between the central historical structures of the cathedral and the Römer city hall. The founding of the Schirn Kunsthalle Frankfurt took place during the culturally fruitful period between 1970 and 1990 under Frankfurt's deputy mayor for cultural affairs, Hilmar Hoffmann, a period that also saw the famed Frankfurt Museumsufer (Museum Riverbank) achieve its present importance. Since 1986 the Schirn has formed a center of urban integration in the heart of Germany's business metropolis, and it is an impulse for cultural discussion of European rank.