Actually, an exhibition on reverse glass painting of the modern age should have been running in the Penzberg Museum for two months - as the visible finale of a research project that the Volkswagen Foundation has financed with over half a million euros.
The lockdown, however, mixed up all the appointments.
Nevertheless: The pictures get stuck.
Penzberg - “It's bitter,” says museum director Diana Oesterle.
Since November, almost 50 works of art have been hanging in the “Museum Penzberg - Campendonk Collection” that deal with modern reverse glass painting.
Around 25 lenders, for example private collectors and museums, have made pictures available.
What is missing are the visitors.
The exhibition has not yet opened.
It was originally supposed to run until April.
It is not just an exhibition, but also the visible conclusion of a multi-year research project that the VW Foundation has financed with around 550,000 euros.
The interdisciplinary research work on the technology and the artists of reverse glass painting of the modern age from 1905 to 1955 gives the Penzberg Museum a unique selling point.
In the Penzberg Museum you don't want to give up hope
But in the museum you don't want to give up hope.
Director Diana Oesterle does not believe that the museum can reopen before mid-March.
However, she has received positive signals from lenders that they may leave her pictures hanging in Penzberg for a while, beyond the actual end of the exhibition.
In any case, Oesterle is in a positive mood to receive the consent of the lenders.
After all, all museums are in the same situation that they have to postpone exhibitions, she says.
It is a great consolation to hear from lenders: “Don't worry.” In theory, according to Diana Oesterle, the exhibition could therefore run until the end of June or the beginning of July.
On the other hand, according to her, it may be natural that a few pictures have to be returned in April.
Closure due to coronavirus mix up program
The fact that the museum has been closed for three and a half months also has an impact on the rest of the annual program, which is usually planned one or two years in advance.
In summer, an exhibition on Heinrich Campendonk and Rhenish Expressionism is to run together with the museums in Murnau, Kochel and Bernried as well as the Lenbachhaus.
In this round, Penzberg deals with the expressionist arts and crafts under the title “Avant-garde in Color”.
This date - it starts in August - is immovable because of the collaboration with the other museums, said Diana Oesterle.
Whereby you plan without knowing when the exhibition can actually open.
After that, the exhibition, which is actually planned for 2020, will be shown with works by Gerhard Fietz, which have long been part of the Penzberg Museum's holdings on permanent loan.
The second part of the exhibition on reverse glass painting of the modern era would not follow until spring 2022.
It deals with their art and cultural history, about which Diana Oesterle wrote her doctoral thesis.
The first part focuses on the various techniques of reverse glass painting.
Online tours are just a small substitute
At the moment, however, we have to wait and see.
Should the museum be allowed to reopen, it would have a hygiene concept ready.
Last summer, five visitors with masks were admitted per floor, a total of around 15 visitors with advance registration.
“The visitors were very understanding, the concept worked well,” recalls Diana Oesterle.
Even if, as she says, it is bitter that this exhibition, the result of a six-year research project, will be able to see “only a fraction of the normal number of visitors”.
Online tours are only a small substitute: "They cannot replace the visitor's personal contact with the work of art."