With due respect to Lower Saxony, Duderstadt is not the first place you’d think of building an art museum of the calibre of the Kunsthalle HGN, housing an impressive collection of eminent German and international artists. Professor Hans Georg Näder has given the region, which he has strong personal ties to, a premier venue that would be at home in a major city – at least contents-wise.
Aesthetically perhaps this kunsthalle (art gallery) is perfect just where it is. Duderstadt architect Harald Schmidt has designed a building for looking out of as well as within. Eschewing the standard white-walled box, Schimdt instead opted for more of a workshop feel, the timber surrounds giving the works a different aspect and the large windows affording a view of the bucolic location and letting the natural light in. When the two annual exhibitions are running, Joe Public gets in free at the weekend, but the rest of the time the Professor has the run of the place. It’s his gallery and his collection, after all.
If the art on display in our pictures caught your eye, the current exhibition is Heimat – There’s No Place Like Home; featuring works from 40 international photographers from this and last century – and the huge canvas you can see is a Neo Rauch oil painting.
Jitka Hanzlová | o. T. (Bewohner)
1996 | C-Print | 47 x 37,5 cm
© 2013 VG-Bildkunst, Bonn /
Jitka Hanzlová
Hans-Christian Schink | Rotha
2000 C-Print | 125 x 147 cm
© Hans-Christian Schink /
Courtesy DZ BANK Kunst- sammlung
Photography © Kunsthalle HGN,
unless otherwise stated.
