CURRENT & UPCOMING

Following Damascus: Karl Ernst Osthaus and the Arts of the Islamicate World

Curated by Dr. Nadine Engel, Curatorial Assistant: Anna Grosche

November 6, 2026 - February 21, 2027

Museum Folkwang | Essen, Germany

An exhibition is dedicated to the former “Department of Islamic Arts” at Museum Folkwang and its enduring resonance within the museum’s current collections. Focusing on museum founder Karl Ernst Osthaus' early acquisitions of arts and crafts from North Africa and West Asia, the exhibition traces the history of the collection—one of the earliest of its kind in Germany—while bringing its historical legacy into dialogue with contemporary perspectives and questions.

Image: Textile fragment (detail), Egypt, first half of the 12th century, Museum Folkwang