Behind Closed Doors presents the unusual collection of contemporary art housed in the Lichtenstein Turm in Coburg, Germany. The Stahlberg Collection, which has been expanded steadily since the 1980s, comprises installations, paintings, photographs, sculptures, videos, and works on paper by German and international artists. Kept largely behind closed doors—the same doors that kept Ulrich von Lichtenstein prisoner for 36 years, after his affair with the wife of Duke Johann Casimir was discovered in 1597—the Stahlberg Collection will now be opened to the public. This book presents 55 works of art selected and described by the art historian and curator Candice M. Hamelin. It provides profound insights into the hitherto unknown collection of Angelika and Fritz Stahlberg.

Artists: Valérie Belin, Isaac Julien, Alicja Kwade, Mohau Modisakeng, Muntean/Rosenblum, Erwin Olaf, Jaehun Park, Neo Rauch, Kehinde Wiley, Sylvie Zijlmans et. al.

Text in English and German.

Image credits

Bettina Rheims, Rose, c’est Paris, La jongleuse, Tour du Palais de justice, côté quai des Orfèvres, mars 2009, gelatin silver print, 122 x 88 cm, © Bettina Rheims, courtesy Fonds de Dotation de l’Institut pour la Photographie

Pieter Hugo, Abdulai Yahaya, Agbogbloshie Market, Accra, Ghana, 2010, from the series Permanent Error, C-print, 98 x 98 cm, © Pieter Hugo. Courtesy of Stevenson Cape Town, Johannesburg, Amsterdam/ Yossi Milo, New York/ Priska Pasquer, Cologne

Sylvie Zijlmans, Dawn, 2006, Installation made of neon tubes, electric cables, bamboo sticks, 274 x 228 cm

Toni Schmale, Geknicktes Rohr, 2018, Bead-blasted aluminium, concrete, brass, steel, 160 x 120 cm