Museum für Ostasiatische Kunst Köln

Museum

History und Architecture more

Exhibition

Layers and Cuts more

Exhibition

99 Bowls – One Cosmos more

Exhibition

Living Images more

Exhibition

East Asia in Motion more

Exhibition

„Le directeur est mort! Vive le directeur!“ more

Exhibition

Regarding the „Line“ more

Exhibition

Celebrating the Lunar Year of the Horse more

The collection

A treasure house of art from China, Korea and Japan more

Programme

See, experience, understand more

Information

Service for visitors more

Exhibition | Current

Celebrating the Lunar Year of the Horse

December 3, 2025 to January 31, 2027

The exhibition focuses the subject of the horse in East Asian art. The transregional presentation explores the horse as a pictorial motif and symbolic bearer of meaning as seen through the perspectives of the various art forms of China, Japan, and Korea. The displayed artworks will include paintings and ceramics, porcelains, bronze sculptures, lacquer objects, woodcut prints, and textiles. The exhibition primarily features objects from the museum's own collection, complemented by selected loans. It is held on occasion of the lunar year 2026, which according to the East Asian zodiac falls under the sign of the Horse. more

Exhibition | Current

Living Images

November 6, 2025 to spring 2027

Buddhist images were mostly created in a ritual context: sculptures or paintings of deities served as iconic images in temples or in a domestic context. Lacquer, metal or ceramic objects were used in ceremonial practices. The exhibition presents highlights such as the Japanese sculpture of Buddha Vairocana dating from the early 12th century, rubbings of important Chinese stone reliefs shown for the first time as well as the reconstruction of the consecration of a Korean hanging scroll. more

Exhibition | Current

„Le directeur est mort! Vive le directeur!“

August 5, 2025 to spring 2027

The anniversary presentation honors former director Roger Goepper (1925–2011), on occasion of his 100th birthday in 2025. Goepper, who led the MOK from 1966 to 1990, shaped the Euro-American discourse on the then hardly known field of East Asian Art History like few others in the 20th century. His spheres of impact were multi-faceted: as academic, curator, museum director, university professor, translator, intercultural ambassador. The 25 exhibits so stand as representatives for Goepper’s 25 years in office at the museum. The show likewise reflects the MOK as a Cologne exhibition space, whose interim period 1945–77 wrote a local city history with venues in the Overstolzenhaus, the Hahnentorburg, and the Josef-Haubrich-Kunsthalle. more

Exhibition | Current

East Asia in Motion

September 11, 2025 to spring 2027

Connected openly with the China, Korea, and Japan Galleries, a novel presentation space has been created for the visitors at the MOK. Conceived transregionally and on a rotating basis, it focuses new museum acquisitions as well as contemporary art. East Asia in Motion encourages encounter and dialogue between arts and crafts of various eras, regions, and genres, and likewise generations of different artists. The range of exhibits reflects not only the museum's collection interests but also the diverse forms of object acquisition through purchases, donations, and permanent loans. more

Exhibition | Current

Regarding the „Line“

February 8, 2025 to spring 2027

Writing and its artistic expression, calligraphy (kor. seoye), play a major role in Korean art. In order to illustrate the influence and importance of calligraphy in Korea, the exhibition contrasts works of contemporary Korean writing and traditional as well as modern painting with examples of ceramics and bronzes from the Goryeo period (918–1392), a peak of Korean culture. more

Exhibition | Current

99 Bowls – One Cosmos

April 23 to October 25, 2026

Within the foyer space of the Museum of East Asian Art, architecture, nature, and contemporary art converge. Ninety-nine handcrafted bowls by internationally renowned ceramicist Young-Jae Lee (*1951) enter into dynamic dialogue with their surroundings. more

Exhibition | Preview

Layers and Cuts

18 June 2026 to 31 January 2027

For thousands of years, the sap of the lacquer tree has been among the most precious materials in East Asia. It is used to coat, impregnate, and colour wooden objects and ceramics, producing surfaces of exceptional depth, lustre, and durability. This special exhibition shows around 60 important Chinese lacquer works from the 12th to the early 17th century held in a Cologne private collection, complemented by selected works belonging to the Museum of East Asian Art. more

Programme

See, experience and understand

All of the museum’s exhibitions are accompanied by numerous different programmes – guided tours, workshops, lectures or special events, for grown-ups, school groups, children or the whole family.

Collection

A treasure house of art from China, Korea and Japan

The Museum for East Asian Art was opened in 1913 as the first specialist museum of its kind in Europe. It now houses one of the most distinguished collections of art from China, Korea and Japan in Germany.

Museum

History and architecture

At the heart of the museum’s holdings is the collection of Buddhist painting and sculpture, Japanese screen painting, coloured woodblock prints, Korean ceramics and lacquer art assembled by the museum’s founders Adolf and Frieda Fischer.

A collaborative light-space-installation

A collaborative light-space installation by the artists Andreas Schmid (b. 1955) and Zheng Chongbin (b. 1961)

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DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT

Theft at the Museum of East Asian Art Cologne on 13 September, 2023

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Publications

Exhibition catalogues, catalogues of the collection, publications on particular themes, and museum guide

Cafeteria

Welcome to Cafe UME.

Deutsch

Opening times

Tuesday to Sunday
11am – 5pm
Every first Thursday in the month
11am – 10pm (except Mai 1)

Closed Mondays; open on All Saints' Day
Museum is closed on December 24th, Christmas Day (25 Dec), New Year's Eve (31 Dec) and New Year's Day (1 Jan). Museum is opend on Easter Monday, Whit Monday, German Unity Day and December 26.

Admission prices

€ 9.50 / € 5.50

KölnTag on the first Thursday of the month (except public holidays): free admission to the Museum for all Cologne residents.

How to get here

Public transport: Tram routes 1 and 7 and bus route 142, alight at ‘Universitätsstrasse’
There is a car park at the museum

Barrier-free

The museum is barrier-free. Disabled toilet available.
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Termine

Führung: Von Feuer- und Himmelspferden
Fr, 15.05.2026, 15:00 Uhr

Workshop: Internationaler Museumstag Vom Kokon zum edlen Seidenkimono – Workshop für Menschen mit Sehbehinderung und interessierte Sehende
So, 17.05.2026, 10:30 Uhr

Führung: Internationaler Museumstag Rituale und religiöse Bilder im Buddhismus Ostasiens
So, 17.05.2026, 11:00 Uhr

Führung: Internationaler Museumstag Auf den Spuren der Museumsgründer
So, 17.05.2026, 12:00 Uhr

Event: Internationaler Museumstag Ein Pferd kommt selten allein
So, 17.05.2026, 12:30 Uhr