The virtual museum of modernism nrw creates an exhibition area for the museum platform nrw – it is a museum located in the internet. The virtual museum of modernism nrw is a new space, a new museum that brings together the collections of the real museums of modernism in North Rhine-Westphalia. Four "exhibition areas" or "rooms" provide insights into the broad spectrum of the museums' holdings: A room of > artists, a room of the > museums, of the > locations, and a room of > themes present new combinations of works and perhaps unusual constellations. The virtual museum of modernism nrw also directly connects the visitor to those real museums and their originals that can be explored in North Rhine-Westphalia's diverse museum landscape.

The virtual museum of modernism nrw is dedicated to a specific realm of art – the multifaceted phenomenon of modernism which the museums of North Rhine-Westphalia have consistently and comprehensively placed at the center of their collections. Artistic aspects of modernism touch upon historical and contemporary events, life worlds, and perspectives that interrelate in many ways. This multiplicity calls for a variety of perspectives and approaches. It includes controversial positions and individual artistic perspectives. Moreover, it contains cultural and art historical aspects that evolved out of the specific perspectives on art and aesthetics of the time, of their social and political references, their practices and techniques.

It was this multiplicity of modernism that inspired the idea to create the virtual museum of modernism nrw, an idea aiming to provide a broad access to the art and the collections of North Rhine-Westphalia's museums. The virtual museum is built like a real museum space. With new works and groups of works the comprehensive collections can be shown at a central "place." This also provides the chance to successively expand the collection and build up a truly comprehensive presentation. At the same time, the works and ensembles included provide significant insights into the history of the museums and mark way stations in the history of the collections. They also create first impressions of the broad artistic spectrum of North Rhine-Westphalia's museum collections and encourage a visit of the real locations.

The virtual museum of modernism nrw is based on a decidedly broad concept of modernism. It currently concentrates on the art of the second half of the 20th century and thus on contemporary works that closely relate to the present. Yet the project aims to include those parts of the museum collections that go back to the 19th and early 20th century.

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Each "room" of the virtual museum of modernism nrw constitutes a complete exhibition area. The paths follow a fixed guiding line. Therefore every step within a room remains connected to the specific path chosen at the beginning.

The four rooms provide access to the collections via > artists, > museums, > locations, and > themes. Each access chosen leads to the collection of works of the museum platform nrw, which is presented with different constellations. Within each room the path leads from a > listing of the artists, museums, locations, and themes (each with preview) to the > survey of works and, finally, to the specific > work chosen. From there, all pictures and texts, work descriptions, artists' biographies or surveys of the location's cultural history become accessible.

The material may be collected for reading. With the link > "add to your collection" the contents indicated is transferred into a personal collection, a "personal archive." This archive can be organized on the level service / planning your visit and can be downloaded on the visitor's computer.