Portrait of a Lady à la Japonaise. Franz von Stuck
15.05 - 20.09.2026
The Villa Stuck Museum is delighted to announce the upcoming donation of a painting by Franz von Stuck entitled “Damenporträt à la japonaise” (Portrait of a Lady à la Japonaise) to its collections by the Verein zur Förderung der Stiftung Villa Stuck e. V. (Association for the Promotion of the Villa Stuck Foundation).
The work thus returns to the place where it was created. The collections also include a portrait photograph of the unknown model, taken by Franz or Mary von Stuck in their own photo studio, as well as a view of the old studio of the Villa Stuck around 1900, in which the painting can be seen on an easel.
Costumes in exotic attire permeate Franz von Stuck's entire oeuvre—well known are his numerous role portraits of his daughter as a bullfighter, an infanta after Diego Velázquez, and a Greek woman, or of models as Egyptian, Roman, or Spanish women, most of which are surrounded by an aura of mystery and enigma.
Curated by Margot Th. Brandlhuber.
No Single View. Ilit Azoulay
15.05 - 18.10.2026
The artist Ilit Azoulay is a storyteller. She works meticulously with a macro camera, searching for hidden details and previously overlooked traces, recording finds from different periods and weaving them into polyphonic stories.
Under the title “Stopover,” Azoulay initially focused in 2024 on the Nazi history of the temporary quarters of Villa Stuck on Goethestraße, which served as forced accommodation for persecuted Jewish people. For “No Single View,” the research now shifts to Villa Stuck and the people associated with the house at Prinzregentenstraße 60. In a 3-channel installation, Azoulay tells a kaleidoscopic story of Mary Stuck, the artist's only biological daughter. The artist intertwines her research on Stuck's family with her findings in a series of new photo collages created especially for the exhibition.
Curated by Helena Pereña.
Zehn Leben. Delschad Numan Khorschid und Jan-Hendrik Pelz
15.05 - 08.11.2026
Flight, trauma, and longing are the central themes of the exhibition “Ten Lives” by Delschad Numan Khorschid and Jan-Hendrik Pelz at the Museum Villa Stuck. Delschad Numan Khorschid, a member of the Munich Residenztheater ensemble, processes the traumatic memories of his lonely escape as a Kurd from Iraq to Germany in paintings, photographs, and texts. Jan-Hendrik Pelz draws attention to the fates of migrants and the traumas associated with them in large-format, mostly photorealistic paintings and sculptures. Against the backdrop of current socio-political debates, in which migration is often reduced to numbers and demands for rejection and restriction, this exhibition opens up a space for empathy and understanding. In the current climate of unwelcome feelings, the works in this exhibition are a moving and powerful call for more humanity.
Curated by Anne Marr.
Feld. Philipp Messner
15.05 - 20.09.2026
In his work, artist Philipp Messner explores complex questions of perception: Where are the boundaries between art and nature? How do impressions of artificiality or naturalness arise? How do digital experiences change the relationship between object, viewer, and space? And how does this change shape our analog reality?
He arranges his sculptures and paper works into multi-layered spatial installations, creating surreal landscapes through which exhibition visitors move as if through a kind of obstacle course.
He works with highly heterogeneous materials—shimmering aluminum panels, organically meandering silvery tubes, paint-soaked marble slabs, and watercolors. His inspiration also comes from a wide variety of sources, such as Arte Povera, or from his native region, the Dolomites.
His sculptures are created in a field of tension between paradoxical conceptual ideas and respond to the architecture of the Villa Stuck studio building; in particular, the installation created especially for this location—a “house within a house” in Franz von Stuck's artist villa.
Rathausgalerie on the move:
The Rathausgalerie Munich is presenting this solo exhibition by Philipp Messner in cooperation with the Museum Villa Stuck. (The Rathausgalerie will not be available in 2026 due to renovation work.)
Philipp Messner (*1975) studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts (ENSBA) in Paris. His works can be found in many public collections, including the Museion in Bolzano, the Center for Contemporary Art in Warsaw, the ERES Foundation, and the Pinakothek der Moderne in Munich. Philipp Messner has received numerous scholarships and awards. He lives and works in Munich and Berlin.
Curated by Nina Oswald and Michael Buhrs.
