Double Cheese Platter: Centenary of the Collection. Twenty Years of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
In 1925, works from the City of Stuttgart art collection, then called the Städtische Gemäldesammlung (Municipal Painting Collection), were shown to the public for the first time in the Villa Berg. As the Galerie der Stadt Stuttgart (Stuttgart City Gallery), the collection was on display for many years in the Kunstgebäude, before finally moving in 2005 to a new building constructed especially for it at the Schlossplatz.
To mark this double anniversary, the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart presented an exhibition featuring solely works from its own collection—including numerous acquisitions and donations from recent years.
The exhibition was inspired by and takes its title from Dieter Roth’s monumental food picture “Doppelkäseplatte” (“Double Cheese Platter”), which belongs to the collection of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart. It consists of various types of cheese whose surface structure soon changed due to decomposition and mold processes. The work quickly grew—and matured. In his use of perishable materials, Roth’s piece poses programmatic questions about the production, reception, and momentum of art. This is precisely where the current exhibition had its point of departure: What does the municipal collection look like after a century? What sort of maturation processes does the collecting of art undergo? How does its perception and authority change over the years?
Structured into seven thematic rooms that bore the individual signatures of the Kunstmuseum’s curators, the exhibition highlighted both the historical context of the collection and its relevance to past real-life issues—such as consumerism and racism. The juxtaposition of works that had not been on view for a long time, if ever, with recent donations and new acquisitions, created a fascinating display.
Admission was free for the entire duration of the exhibition.
Exhibition project management Dierk Höhne
Program project management Stefanie Ufrecht
Curators Kai Artinger, Eva-Marina Froitzheim, Ulrike Groos, Sabine Gruber, Dierk Höhne, Stefanie Ufrecht
Research Assistants Anne Odenthal, Antonia Rittgeroth
Supported by Landeshauptstadt Stuttgart, LBBW Landesbank Baden-Württemberg, FREUNDE des Kunstmuseums Stuttgart e.V., MUSAGET, Otto F. Scharr-Stiftung, Ernst von Siemens Musikfstiftung, eberhard rommel Stiftung
Anton Stankowski collection in cooperation with Wüstenrot Stiftung
Media Partner WELTKUNST, Süddeutsche Zeitung
Artists
Frank Ahlgrimm, Albrecht/d., atelierJAK, Yael Bartana, Tim Berresheim, Gerda Brodbeck, Andrea Büttner, Otto Dix, Karl Duschek, Simone Eisele, Dietrich Fricker, Peter Granser, Dana Greiner, Vivian Greven, Susanne Hofmann, Christian Jankowski, Anne Marie Jehle, Ida Kerkovius, Fritz Lang, Josephine Meckseper, Markus Oehlen, Dieter Roth, K.R.H. Sonderborg, Anton Stankowski, Kara Walker, Ina Weber, Ben Willikens, Lambert Maria Wintersberger, André Wischnewski, Sonja Yakovleva, Haegue Yang, Hannah Zenger
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Donation of the Stankowski-Stiftung, © Stankowski-Stiftung / Photo: Frank Kleinbach, Stuttgart
Exhibition view “Doppelkäseplatte. 100 Jahre Sammlung, 20 Jahre Kunstmuseum Stuttgart,” Work inventory Anton Stankowski in cooperation with Wüstenrot Foundation, © Stankowski-Stiftung / Photo: Gerald Ulmann, Stuttgart
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, © Dieter Roth Estate, Courtesy Hauser & Wirth
Archive Kunstmuseum Stuttgart
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart / Photo: Frank Kleinbach, Stuttgart
Exhibition view “Doppelkäseplatte. 100 Jahre Sammlung, 20 Jahre Kunstmuseum Stuttgart,” © Nachlass Gerda Brodbeck / Photo: Gerald Ulmann, Stuttgart
Exhibition view “Doppelkäseplatte. 100 Jahre Sammlung, 20 Jahre Kunstmuseum Stuttgart,” © Kerkovius Archiv Wendelstein, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2025 for Dana Greiner, © Markus Oehlen / Photo: Frank Kleinbach, Stuttgart
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Donation Alison and Peter W. Klein, Eberdingen-Nussdorf, © Markus Oehlen / Photo: Frank Kleinbach, Stuttgart
Exhibition view “Doppelkäseplatte. 100 Jahre Sammlung, 20 Jahre Kunstmuseum Stuttgart,” © Kerkovius Archiv Wendelstein / Photo: Gerald Ulmann, Stuttgart
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, Donation Anne Marie Jehle Foundation, © Anne Marie Jehle Foundation, Vaduz / Photo: Frank Kleinbach, Stuttgart
Exhibition view “Doppelkäseplatte. 100 Jahre Sammlung, 20 Jahre Kunstmuseum Stuttgart,” © Sonja Yakovleva / Photo: Gerald Ulmann, Stuttgart
Installation view: Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, 2025, On permanent loan from the Friends of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, © Kara Walker, Courtesy Sprüth Magers and Sikkema Malloy Jenkins / Photo: Gerald Ulmann, Stuttgart
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, © SNA – Studios New Amerika
On permanent loan from the Friends of the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, © Haegue Yang / Photo: Nick Ash
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, © Vivian Greven / Photo: Ivo Faber
Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, © Peter Granser
Anton Stankowski Conversation projekt
A joint project between the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart and the Wüstenrot Foundation has enabled 110 paintings and 78 prints from the estate of Anton Stankowski (1906–1998) to be restored and conserved. A selection can be seen in the exhibition "Double Cheese Platter". The aim is to preserve and secure this culturally significant collection in the long term. The project is part of the Wüstenrot Foundation’s “Cultural Assets in Archives and Museums” program.
To provide the public with an insight into the work of conservators and Stankowski’s artistic approach, the restoration work was accompanied by a film crew.
