Art and Culture

The documenta exhibition in Kassel is famous worldwide. The world’s most important exhibition of contemporary art attracts huge crowds of visitors from different countries. Every five years the documenta puts on an exhibition of contemporary trends in modern art as well as providing a forum for new exhibition concepts. First mounted in 1955, the documenta is now in its 50th year.

Who would have dreamt the documenta would become so successful when the first exhibition, devised by Arnold Bode, was opened in 1955? Among the ruins of the Fridericianum Museum, which was destroyed during WW2, Bode presented exhibits depicting the development of fine art at the beginning of the 20th century which were banned from exhibition during the Nazi regime. The 1955 exhibition deliberately emphasized the pan-European phenomenon of Modern Classicism. Today, the documenta continues to bring together a range of artistic worlds, thereby also contributing to the history of art.

The brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were outstanding figures whose work had a lasting effect on artistic developments in Germany and Europe. Their fairytale collection became famous worldwide. A large part of their lives was spent in Kassel and there is much evidence of their lives and work along the “German Fairy Tale Route”.

Virtually every art lover has heard of the collection of old masters in the Wilhelmshöhe Palace Art Gallery. The main part of this unique collection is devoted to Dutch and Flemish painters, including many world-famous pictures by Rembrandt.