Current

Jan Bontjes van Beek

25.7.2025 - 6.4.2026

The eventful life of Jan Bontjes van Beek (1899–1969) reflects the highs and lows of 20th-century German history. A ‘strikingly handsome (...) sailor who was a good dancer,’ he arrived in the artists' colony of Worpswede in 1919 and soon found a place to stay with the Breling family in Fischerhude, who introduced him to the art of ceramics. With the support of his second wife, the architect Rahel Weisbach, he moved to Berlin in 1933, where his studio became a well-known meeting place for many artists. He was arrested by the Nazis and his daughter Cato was executed in Plötzensee prison. After the war, Jan Bontjes van Beek decided to teach at the Weißensee Art Academy in East Berlin, but was unable to come to terms with the GDR regime and was dismissed as director in 1951. He then found employment as a teacher, first in West Berlin and finally in Hamburg, and continued his ceramic work, which gave the free spirit stability. Like no other, he emphasised physicality in form and dynamism in colour. In turbulent times, he sought the right balance for his vessels and ultimately for himself.

The works by Christine Atmer de Reig, Antje Brüggemann, Volker Ellwanger, Martin Schlotz and Barbara Stehr on display in the adjoining room show the significant influence Bontjes had on German ceramic vessels.

The exhibition, curated by Sebastian Jacobi, will be on display until 6 April 2026. We would like to express our sincere thanks to Jan and Olga's granddaughter Saskia Bontjes van Beek, who supported us with numerous loans and valuable information. We are also grateful to Bernhard Braumann, Sebastian Jacobi, Ludwig Rinn, Dr. Seippel, Dr. Vehring and the Werner family for providing us with further loans from their collections.

The Bauhaus ceramics class 1920-1925

17.10.2025 - 7.6.2026

Exactly one hundred years ago, the Bauhaus ceramics workshop in Dornburg, Thuringia, closed its doors. The Westerwald Ceramics Museum is dedicating a special exhibition to this influential ceramics class.

At the beginning of the 20th century, anyone who decided to train in ceramics had three options: an apprenticeship, training at a technical college or studying at an arts and crafts school.

After the First World War, the educational spectrum was expanded to include the Bauhaus in Weimar, which established its own ceramics class. A small group of young people with different educational backgrounds felt magically drawn to the Bauhaus ideal. They were all united by the desire to overcome the traditional boundaries between fine and applied art as artistic avant-garde.

Until the closure of the Weimar Bauhaus in 1925, a new and modern aesthetic of exceptional quality emerged in Dornburg. Experimentation and tradition were not mutually exclusive. With the relocation of the Bauhaus from Weimar to Dessau, the Dornburg ceramics class also disbanded after five years. Some Bauhaus students, such as Werner Burri, Otto Lindig and Marguerite Friedlaender, later became teachers themselves and thus influenced subsequent generations.

This exhibition commemorates this special ceramics class. At the same time, it gives an impression of ceramics teaching at that time and also reveals the previously unknown connections to the ceramics college in Höhr.

The exhibition is a collaborative project with the Bauhaus Workshop Museum in Dornburg, the only remaining workshop of this legendary art school. Here, the exhibition was on display in spring 2025 under the title ‘Bauhaus in Dornburg. Insel der Eigenbrötler’. With funding from the Ernst von Siemens Art Foundation, an accompanying catalogue has been published and is available in the museum shop.