English

GRASSI Museum of Applied Arts

Since being re-opened, the museum's new permanent exhibition is an invitation to travel through more than 2,500 years of art history. The highlights of the first tour "Antiquity to Historism" include the Roman hall, the Piranesi Gallery and, above all, a most valuable collection of Baroque art cabinet items. In the second exhibition area, "Asiatic Art. Impetus for Europe", a very particular fascination is exercised by a twelve-part Chinese carved lacquer screen from the Qing Dynasty and a selection of excellent Japanese Nô masks. It is planned to open the third and last tour, "Art Nouveau up to the Present Day", focusing on works from the 1920s and 1930s, at the end of 2011. With the exhibition floor space totalling some 5,000 square metres, the richness and variety of the museum's own collections can be experienced again for the first time since World War II.
Other attractions besides the permanent exhibition are special exhibitions dedicated to a range of different topics and the Grassimesse held each year on the last weekend in October. The latter is an international sales fair for applied art and product design with a tradition stretching back to 1920. It provides a forum for around 100 vetted artistic craft workers, designers, artists and specialist universities to present and sell unique items, small-series and industrial products. A must for those interested in quality-conscious design.

Opened as Germany's second museum of applied arts in 1874, the Museum of Applied Arts today is one of the most tradition-steeped institutions of its kind in Europe. The museum's collections include unique items of craftwork from every epoch as well as series-produced industrial products. Art Nouveau, Art Déco and Functionalism determine the profile of the collections in virtually every field. The discipline of industrial design was able to be further expanded with a comprehensive range of GDR product design work. The textiles collection consists of a broad spectrum of early Coptic fabrics through to contemporary textiles.
The collection of primarily German ceramics from the 20th Century has developed into a new focal point.

GRASSI Museum für Angewandte Kunst
Johannisplatz 5-11, 04103 Leipzig
Tel.: +49 (0)341/ 22 29 100, Fax: 49 (0)341/ 22 29 200
grassimuseum@leipzig.de

sketch-map

Opening hours:
Tuesday – Sunday, including Public Holidays 10am –6pm
Closed on Mondays and on 24.12. and 31.12.

Visit us!
All object descriptions in the exhibition rooms can be found in English. In the exhibition, all explanatory texts are available in English, French, Spain and Russian.
Special tours in English, French and Italian can be arranged in advance.