Excerpt from the Klausener messenger 2008

MUSEUM - MUSEO

Exhibition

A l e x a n d e r  K o e s t e r 1864 -1932

Paintings from Dr. Hans and Hildegard Koester Stiftung eV (Dortmund)

Duration of the exhibition 02.08.-18.10.2008

Opening times: Tue-Sat, 9.30-12, 15.30-18 clock. Sunday, Monday and closed on August 15

Klausen experienced in the second half of the 19th century a cultural heyday as "artists' village". Alexander Koester (Bergneustadt 1864 - Munich 1932) is one of the most famous and important representatives of the artists’ colony Klausen. His close relations with the Eisackstadt were not only artistic, but also by personal nature: in 1891 he first came to Klausen where he met his future wife Isabella Kantioler, a daughter of the Lammwirt. In 1896 he settled in Klausen, 1898, he opened a summer studio in Munich. The outbreak of the First World War forced him to move to Munich. In 2005, the town of Klausen erected a bronze monument, designed by Prof. Rainer Martin, in memory of the close bond between Alexander Koester and his adopted home. The Klausner years constitute his most fertile creative period. As an artist, Koester was initially facing the traditional genre painting, but then became a wholly Impressionist concentrated on the immediate reproduction of nature.

By preference, he designed close nature cutouts; he was famous for its ducks images in countless variations.

The exhibition presents a cross-section of his rich oeuvre. The works come from the property of the Foundation Dr. Hans and Hildegard Koester, Dortmund. At the opening, the City Museum Klausen get two works by Alexander Koester from the bequest of Mrs. Hildegard Koester.