Museum Kunstpalast

The Kunstpalast, formerly Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf is an art museum in Düsseldorf.

The roots of the museum go back around 300 years. In 1932, the collection of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf (Academy of Art) was housed in the Kunstmuseum Düsseldorf. This included the exhibits given by the popular regent Jan Wellem, Duke of Palatinate, and his wife Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici, and some rich citizens of Düsseldorf. The academy had been founded in 1710, its collection expanded in the 19th century by the collection of Lambert Krahe.^{[citation needed]}

The Düsseldorfer Gallerieverein, founded in the 19th century, collected many drawings of the Düsseldorfer Malerschule, later given to that collection. The Museum for Advanced Arts, whose opening was in 1883, merged with that museum later.^{[citation needed]}

The Kunstmuseum in its actual form opened in 1913. Subsequently, the Museumsverein (the Museum Association) and the Künstler-Verein zur Veranstaltung von Kunstausstellungen (the Artists’ Association for the Realisation of Art Exhibitions) collaborated in the organisation of art exhibitions, and the foundation Stiftung Museum Kunstpalast was established in 1998.

In January 2020, the NRW Forum became part of the Kunstpalast.

In 1902, the first Kunstpalast was erected at Ehrenhof ("court of honour"), for a major exhibition featuring artworks as well as industrial and trade items. A new building in Art Deco style was designed by Wilhelm Kreis in 1926, for an exhibition on health care, social care and exercise, called "GeSoLei". The Communal Arts Collection and the Hetjens-Museum [de] for ceramics (applied arts moved into the Ehrenhof building in 1928.

In 1969 the ceramics moved to the Palais Nesselrode [de] at the Schulstraße in Düsseldorf-Carlstadt. There is also the NRW-Forum Kultur und Wirtschaft (forum for culture and economy of North Rhine-Westphalia) in the same building complex.

The museum was extensively remodelled by Oswald Mathias Ungers and reopened in 2001.