From 7 July to 18 August 2024, Museum Schloss Moyland is honouring the collector, co-founder and first director of the museum, Hans van der Grinten (1929-2002), with a cabinet exhibition to mark his 95th birthday.

Since 1946, Hans van der Grinten had amassed an extensive art collection together with his brother Franz Joseph. This formed the starting point for the establishment of the Museum Schloss Moyland Foundation in 1990. In their collecting activities, the van der Grinten brothers focussed on figurative art and landscape painting from the 19th and 20th centuries. Hans van der Grinten had a particular passion for the medium of graphic art, and the collection also includes numerous works of painting as well as small sculptures, object art and decorative arts.

The exhibition is dedicated to Hans van der Grinten's contribution to the brothers' joint foundation. Around 90 works from the collection acquired by Hans van der Grinten were selected for this collector's portrait, including paintings, drawings and prints, as well as sculptures and objects made of textiles and other materials. The exhibition presents some of the artists whose work Hans van der Grinten was interested in and some of whom he was friends with for many years. At the same time, the selection gives an impression of the diversity of the Museum Schloss Moyland's collection.

Curated by Alexander Grönert

Short biography

Hans van der Grinten was born in Kranenburg on the Lower Rhine in 1929 and died in Essen in 2002. In 1954, he began studying agriculture in Bonn with the aim of running his parents' farm. After graduating, he studied art history in Bonn from 1960 to 1965. From 1964 to 1973 he worked as a lecturer at the Seminar for Work Education in Düsseldorf, and from 1971 he was also employed as a research assistant at the Städtisches Museum Abteiberg in Mönchengladbach. In 1974, he became head curator for modern art at the Stedelijk Museum Commanderie van Sint Jan in Nijmegen. After the establishment of the Museum Schloss Moyland Foundation in 1990, he became its first Artistic Director in 1993 together with Franz Joseph van der Grinten. 

Opening

We cordially invite you, your family and friends to the opening on Sunday, 7 July 2024, at 11:30 am. Dr Antje-Britt Mählmann, Artistic Director, will talk to artists from the collection about Hans van der Grinten and the beginnings of Museum Schloss Moyland. Followed by a visit to the exhibition and a chat at the Bar Mezzogiorno.

We invite the members of the Förderverein Museum Schloss Moyland e. V. to an exclusive preview on Thursday, 4 July 2024, at 5:00 pm.