Why go
Pair this background with a visit to K20, Museum Kunstpalast or another focused collection. Knowing the link between the academy, nineteenth-century painting and later artists makes the range of Düsseldorf's art institutions easier to read as you choose what to see.
The full story
Jan Wellem and Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici enlarged Düsseldorf's electoral picture collection, giving the city an early art profile. Much of that collection later moved to Munich, so the city's present art identity cannot be reduced to a single surviving court gallery. In the nineteenth century the Düsseldorf school of painting grew around the academy, drawing students from beyond the Rhineland and shaping landscape and genre painting. Later, artists gathered in groups such as Das Junge Rheinland, while the gallery of Mutter Ey became an important meeting point. After the Second World War, Joseph Beuys helped make the Kunstakademie a focus for new artistic ideas. Bernd and Hilla Becher's teaching and work also connect Düsseldorf with influential photography, including Andreas Gursky and Thomas Ruff. A museum day can trace one part of this long sequence; trying to compress every period into one label would miss the contrasts that make the city's collections interesting.