Franz Joseph van der Grinten and his collection

Cabinet exhibition on the occasion of the 90th birthday

11.6.–16.7.2023

From 11 June to 16 July 2023, Museum Schloss Moyland will honour the art collector and art historian Franz Joseph van der Grinten with an exhibition. Around 95 works by more than 35 artists from the museum's holdings give an impression of the collector's diverse and wide-ranging interests. On display are works of painting and sculpture, drawings and prints, works in glass and porcelain, as well as medals, plaques and a large-format embroidery, ranging in time from the end of the 19th century to the 1990s.

As the author of numerous texts, Franz Joseph van der Grinten has done much to deepen our understanding of the artists he valued and collected. For this reason, in addition to works of art, the exhibition also features publications to which Franz Joseph van der Grinten contributed as an author, among others on Elisabeth Andrae, Joseph Beuys, Peter Dreher, Herbert Falken, Johann Peter Heek, Egon Kalinowski, Sigrid Kopfermann, Rudolf Schoofs, Thomas Müller and Hannes Steinert.

Both van der Grinten brothers have contributed works of art to the Museum Schloss Moyland Foundation. Works acquired by Franz Joseph van der Grinten were selected for the exhibition. The focus is on acquisitions from the time before the foundation was established in 1990. This selection clearly highlights Franz Joseph van der Grinten's profile as a collector personality.

Franz Joseph van der Grinten would have turned 90 on 11 June 2023. After studying in Bonn, he worked as an art teacher at the Grillo Grammar School in Gelsenkirchen from 1965 and at the Collegium Augustinianum Gaesdonck in Goch from 1971 to 1993. At the same time, from 1946 onwards, together with his brother Hans van der Grinten (1929-2002), he gradually assembled an extensive art collection and organised numerous exhibitions. The art collection was transferred to the Museum Schloss Moyland Foundation on 11 July 1990. Franz Joseph van der Grinten was awarded the Order of Merit of North Rhine-Westphalia on 23 November 1992. From 1993 to 2003, together with his brother, he was director of the Museum Schloss Moyland, which opened in 1997.