Whether it is a street barrier or a club membership card, an academic title or waiting for your number to be called at the employment office - we are surrounded by visible and invisible boundaries. The current exhibition »cross-border« deals with this extremely complex subject. In order to point out gaps in the museum's photography and video art collection, the search beyond Germany's borders has turned up some successful findings in the Vienna Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig (MUMOK). The resulting photography and video art show in Stuttgart examines about 200 works by internationally renowned artists such as David Goldblatt, Nan Goldin, Gelatin, Louise Lawler, Thomas Ruff, Rainer Ganahl, The Atlas Group, and Anna and Bernhard Blume, focusing on the subject of »crossing borders«.
	Willi Baumeister, Oskar Schlemmer and the architect and artist Franz Krause worked for the Wuppertal paint factory, Dr. Kurt Herberts & Co. between 1937 and 1944. During this time, they researched into different painting techniques. They had their professor titles withdrawn at an early date by the National Socialist regime and were not allowed to paint or exhibit their art. In the Wuppertal working group, they tested different ways of creating surfaces with paint and created more than 160 test plates. These plates are the main focus of the exhibition »Lacquer Laboratory. Baumeister, Schlemmer, Krause 1937-1944«. They show surfaces worked on using dripping and pouring techniques, and compositions made with fingers, instruments or other materials such as sand. The experiments with paint are something between material testing and art. They can be seen as little known forerunners of the Informel movement. to catalogue
	The German newsmagazine, Spiegel called the conceptual artist, Josephine Meckseper, a "rebel against the zeitgeist." The magazine, Die Zeit, characterized her as a sophisticated admirer of the works of Jean Baudrillard. A German-born artist who has lived and worked in New York since the early 90s, Meckseper has achieved international recognition with her participation in noteworthy exhibitions and biennial contemporary art shows such as the Whitney Biennale in 2006 and the Moscow Biennale in 2007. The Kunstmuseum Stuttgart is the artist's first solo museum exhibition. In the 1,200-square-meter space, over 150 works from Meckseper's oeuvre consisting of her earliest creations, to new work created especially for the Stuttgart exhibition will be on display. Meckseper is a multimedia conceptual artist using a variety of techniques: She creates large installations, window displays, sculptures, paintings, photographs and films. to catalogue
	Willi Baumeister (1889-1955), a painter and typographer who came to be known as one of the most important representatives of abstract painting, designed his first stage set for the »Deutsche Theater Stuttgart« in 1919. Up until the outbreak of World War II he was able to realize another eight stage sets, followed by nine more stage projects after the war had ended. The projects included stage-, and costume designs for example »Transfiguration« by Ernst Toller for the spoken theater, »Love the Magician« by Manuel de Falla for the ballet, and »Ariodante« by Georg Friedrich Händel for the opera. The exhibition will show expressive sketches and striking designs for a range of theatre productions. Photos of theater rehearsals and performances, press reviews, and correspondence containing humorous, private sketches will supplement the exhibition material. to catalogue
	Nothing fascinates and captivates our attention as strongly as the sight of another person. Through the comparison with others, we recognize ourselves. Portrait pain-ting is thus one of the oldest forms of art. An Egyptian mummy portrait from the first century forms the prelude to the exhibition »Match. Otto Dix and the Art of Portraiture« in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. The focal point, however, is one of the most unerring portraitists of the twentieth century: displayed on more than 1,000 square meters are sixty-five paintings by Otto Dix, including forty works on loan from muse-ums such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden. With this show, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart with its worldwide most important Otto Dix collection puts his portrait art at the center of a large exhibition for the first time. The exhibition juxtaposes the works of Otto Dix with eighty-eight additional portraits by artists from Lucas Cranach to Andy Warhol. The encounter with pain-tings by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Oskar Kokoschka, Erich Heckel, and Francis Bacon and works by contemporary artists such as Duane Hanson, Gerhard Richter, or Wolfgang Tillmanns illuminates the significance of the portraitist Otto Dix over time. As the major sponsor and through donations and loans, the Landesbank Baden-Württemberg (LBBW) strongly supports the Otto Dix collection of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. As the main sponsor for the exhibition »Match. Otto Dix and the Art of Portraiture«, the LBBW shows further engagement. to catalogue