Reutlingen Art Museum | Spendhaus

Kunstmuseum Reutlingen | Spendhaus occupies a six-storey timber-framed building in Reutlingen, Germany. Built in 1518, the former grain store still shows its wooden framework from outside. Inside, modern and contemporary art explores wood, paper, and relief printing. The building survived Reutlingen’s great fire of 1726 and later served as a warehouse, weaving school, library, and local history museum.

Since 1989, exhibitions have centred on artistic woodcuts and relief prints from the nineteenth century to the present. Artists cut or shape a surface, apply ink, and transfer raised areas onto paper. The collection includes works by Wilhelm Laage and HAP Grieshaber, alongside paintings, drawings, sculptures, printing blocks, and prints. A major foundation came from Ernst Ziegler’s 1954 gift of more than two thousand works, followed by Peter Kemna’s woodcut collection in 2004.

The basement preserves the original knee-lever printing press from Grieshaber’s studio. Wood, ink, paper, and physical pressure meet in that tangible reminder of how prints take shape. Historical and contemporary works appear together, while exhibitions also examine how wood and paper can move beyond traditional printmaking. On the top floor, the Baumhaus offers art education and a place to pause among questions, materials, and ideas.