When can the exhibition A Life in Colors be seen?

The special exhibition can be seen from July 7 to September 27, 2026, at the Diocesan Museum Freising.

What are the opening hours of the Diocesan Museum Freising?

According to available event information, the museum is open from Tuesday to Sunday from 9 AM to 5 PM.

What art is shown in the exhibition?

The exhibition features paintings by Ruth Kohler, particularly expressive and non-representational works with color bodies, swirls, and layering.

Is there a publication for the exhibition?

Yes. A 128-page publication titled A Life in Colors. The Painter Ruth Kohler will be released for the exhibition.

Are there tours or workshops?

Information about tours and workshops will follow.

Is the Diocesan Museum accessible?

Information regarding specific accessibility will follow.

Ruth Kohler: A Life in Colors

Name: A LIFE IN COLORS – THE PAINTER RUTH KOHLER
Start: 2026-09-24T09:00:00+02:00
End: 2026-09-27T17:00:00+02:00
Location: Diözesanmuseum Freising

A Life in Colors: Ruth Kohler's expressive painting in Freising

The Diocesan Museum Freising is dedicating a comprehensive special exhibition to the painter Ruth Kohler. Under the title A Life in Colors – The Painter Ruth Kohler, a multi-voiced art experience unfolds from July 7 to September 27, 2026, showcasing the elemental power of color.

Color as an independent visual language

For Ruth Kohler, it is not the object but the color itself that is at the center of painting. Her expressive-abstract works evolve from color bodies, swirls, and layering. Bright tones meet dark contrasts, transparent glazes encounter powerful brush movements. In the contemplation of the works, color appears as an expression of hope, delicacy, fear, and sorrow.

An artist biography between church painting and abstraction

The artist Ruth Kohler, born in Fürth in 1929, studied at the art academies in Nuremberg and Munich. As one of the first women of her generation at the Munich Art Academy, she became a master's student and assistant to Franz Nagel. Further study stays took her to Florence, Rome, and Paris. Her early works as a church painter include frescoes, stained glass, and paintings for sacred spaces.

Stays in Africa expanded her view of landscape, light, and intense color worlds. Later, people and urban impressions came to the forefront, including the anonymity of the big city and dynamic motifs from New York and Chicago. Since the 1980s, Kohler has increasingly turned towards expressive abstraction.

The exhibition atmosphere on the Freising Domberg

The presentation in the Diocesan Museum takes visitors through several stations of a long artistic journey. Large-format painting, color compressions, and rhythmic image compositions invite visitors to perceive the canvas not just as a depiction but as an independent experiential space. The aesthetic experience arises from the interplay of closeness and distance: from a distance, the works appear like colorful sound surfaces, while in detail, overlays, traces, and finely tuned nuances emerge.

Art historical classification and cultural education

Ruth Kohler's work stands in the tradition of informal and expressive painting without being reduced to a rigid art historical schema. Her images arise from memory, intuition, and immediate perception. Travels, landscapes, urban movements, and human encounters transform into a non-figurative visual language that conveys between spontaneous gesture and conscious composition.

The exhibition thus opens access to cultural education: visitors can understand how a motif develops from color, movement, and materiality. Kohler's painting does not demand a definitive interpretation but rather an open, focused contemplation.

Publication accompanying the exhibition

A 128-page publication A Life in Colors. The Painter Ruth Kohler will also be released, edited by Christoph Kürzeder and Steffen Mensch. The volume deepens the art historical classification and documents the exhibition at the Diocesan Museum for Christian Art of the Archdiocese of Munich and Freising.

Conclusion: An intense art experience with the power of color

The exhibition promises an encounter with an independent position of expressive abstraction. Those who wish to experience painting as a sensual experience, as a movement of light and color, as well as a mirror of biographical memories will find an impressive exhibition space at the Diocesan Museum Freising. A visit opens new perspectives on modern painting and invites visitors to think of color with all their senses.