Jade, bronze, cloisonné, sculpture and painting - the Asiatica collection of the entrepreneur Werner Reimers (1888-1965) encompasses almost all the important branches of East Asian art. Within the framework of a scientific partnership between the Werner Reimers Foundation and the Museum Angewandte Kunst, the collection has been scientifically processed over the past three years. The museum is taking this as an opportunity to present 60 selected works from the collection for the first time, from 25 October 2018 to 24 February 2019 in the exhibition Birthplace Yokohama. The entrepreneur Werner Reimers (1888-1965) and his Asiatica collection.
Werner Reimers was born in 1888 to a Hamburg merchant family in the Japanese port city of Yokohama. He grew up in Hamburg, but returned to his birthplace of Yokohama in 1911 on behalf of his father's trading house. During the First World War he was prohibited from any commercial activity in Japan. Against the background of this enforced professional inactivity, Reimers discovered the appeal of Japanese art and culture for himself. This passion expanded more and more to Chinese art and accompanied the entrepreneur, who had been working in Bad Homburg since 1928, for the rest of his life. Over the years, he built up a considerable collection that offers an impressive testimony to what fascinated Western Asiatica collectors in the 20th century about the art of the Far East.
The total of 140 objects still in existence in the Reimers Collection range from miniature netsuke and snuff bottle to a large cabinet in the Japanese style. They betray a rather playful approach to Asian art, almost reminiscent of Baroque chinoiserie collections. Among the outstanding pieces also presented in the exhibition are a Tang-period stone Buddha and a group of album leaves with elegant ink painting. Also of exceptional quality are a Ming-period narrow-necked bottle decorated with marine flora and fauna and a Qianlong-period pilgrimage bottle. In the exhibition, the objects are complemented by historical photographs and texts that address Werner Reimers as an art collector in the context of his time. Here the focus is on the years he spent in Yokohama.
Opening Hours:
Thu, Thu-Sun 10am-6pm
Mi 10am-8pm
Text Source: PM Museum of Applied Arts
Further information: http://www.museumangewandtekunst.de/
