Staatliche Kunsthalle

The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is one of the oldest cultural institutions in the city and the region. Since it opened in 1909, it has shown exhibitions of classical, modern and contemporary art. The Staatliche Kunsthalle stands between the Museum Frieder Burda and the Kulturhaus LA8 on Lichtentaler Allee and is part of Baden-Baden’s Museumsmeile. Regular admission is 10 €, reduced 7 €.

Current exhibition

Building

The building at the entrance to Lichtentaler Allee is in the late Jugendstil (Art Nouveau) style and is deliberately asymmetrical on the outside. Its architecture and ornamentation draw on motifs of Greco-Roman antiquity. Inside, around 672 m² of exhibition space is available. The institution has no collection of its own and serves solely as an exhibition hall for changing exhibitions.^[1]

Visitors reach the foyer via the external staircase, where the Café Kunsthalle has been located since 2004. It is accessible during the Kunsthalle’s opening hours.

History

As early as the 1890s, artists from Karlsruhe longed for a gallery building of their own where they could hold changing sales exhibitions. In 1906 the painter Robert Engelhorn presented his “project for a permanent art exhibition” to the public. Robert Engelhorn was a son of the co-founder of the Badische Anilin- und Sodafabrik (BASF) and therefore had the financial means to get the project underway. Baden-Baden was chosen as the location for the building because of its greater public appeal. The experienced museum architect Hermann Billing was commissioned with the construction.

On 3 April 1909 the building was opened by Grand Duke Friedrich II and his consort. Opinion was divided on the museum building, which later proved very practical: while some saw it as a temple, others spoke of a crematorium or even a stable. From 1909 to 1934 the Kunsthalle showed changing exhibitions. During the Great Depression of 1929 the donor Engelhorn fell into poverty. As a result, the Kunsthalle passed into public ownership of the Republic of Baden, while its purpose remained unchanged.^[2]

When the National Socialists came to power, the exhibition programme changed. After the Second World War the building was first used as a library. In 1951 operations at the Kunsthalle resumed.

Since 2004 the Kunsthalle has been connected to the new building of the Museum Frieder Burda by a glass bridge.

Cooperation with the Badisches Landesmuseum

Since May 2025 the Staatliche Kunsthalle and the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe have shared a single management. Both institutions are directed by Eckart Köhne, with Susanne Schulenburg as commercial director. The reason is the multi-year renovation of Karlsruhe Palace, where the Landesmuseum is otherwise housed. For the roughly five years of construction, the Landesmuseum is using the Kunsthalle as an interim venue, and the two institutions are developing a joint exhibition programme that brings together contemporary art and objects of cultural history.^[3]

As their first joint project, the exhibition Bloom up! Die Sprache der Blumen combines contemporary works with objects from the collections of the Badisches Landesmuseum.

References

1. ↑ Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden: History (Archived)
2. ↑ Rolf Derenbach: Häuser haben Geschichte. Die Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden und der Maler Erwin Heinrich 1945–1956, Refubium (Freie Universität Berlin) 2024 (Archived)
3. ↑ Kunstportal Baden-Württemberg: Gemeinsam in die Zukunft: Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden und Badisches Landesmuseum stellen Ausstellungsprogramm vor (30.08.2025) (Archived)