Paths of Art: Tracing Reinhold Würth’s Lifelong Conversation with Beauty

What turns a private passion into a public legacy?
Wege der Kunst (“Paths of Art”) invites us into the rooms—literal and inner—where Reinhold Würth’s lifelong dialogue with art unfolded. It is the story of a man who began as a devoted collector and emerged as a defining presence in the cultural landscape, told not through spectacle but through intimacy: quiet conversations, hard-won insights, and moments when a single painting changes how a life is lived.

A portrait beyond the collection

Rather than inventorying masterpieces, the film listens—to Würth’s memories, to artists who challenged and shaped him, to friends and collaborators who witnessed his evolving philosophy. These encounters reveal a person whose curiosity never calcified into certainty. The camera lingers on the spaces between words, where affection, disagreement, and wonder all have room to breathe. In doing so, Wege der Kunst becomes less a biography than a study of attention: how one man’s way of seeing ripples outward into patronage, public institutions, and a culture of care.

Philosophy in practice

Würth’s engagement with art is presented as a living ethic. The film explores questions that have followed him for decades: What does it mean to steward beauty rather than own it? How do collections serve communities, artists, and the future—especially when taste, markets, and histories are always shifting? Through candid reflections, we watch a philosophy take shape—one that treats art as a companion to work, responsibility, and the search for meaning.

An odyssey behind the scenes

More than twenty filmmakers contributed to this production, capturing 35 shooting days across three countries. The resulting mosaic is unified by trust: close collaboration with the Würth team opened archives, schedules, and conversations that rarely leave private circles. That access shows in the details—the way an artist’s studio sounds in the morning, the pause before a difficult answer, the quiet choreography of hanging a work on a wall.

Premiere & broadcast

Wege der Kunst celebrated its cinema premiere on July 20, 2024, at “Das Kino” in Salzburg as part of the Festival’s opening, and later aired on ORF 2’s Kultur Montag on July 29, 2024. These moments placed the film exactly where it belongs: at the intersection of public curiosity and personal reflection.

Why this story, why now

In an age of speed and surface, Wege der Kunst argues for depth. It suggests that collecting is not accumulation but conversation; that influence is not noise but attention sustained over years; that the measure of a life in art is not only what hangs on the wall but what endures in the people who encounter it.

Ultimately, the film offers a generous proposition: art is not a destination but a series of paths—taken, retraced, and shared. Reinhold Würth’s journey shows how those paths can shape a life, a community, and perhaps, if we’re willing to linger a little longer, the way we see the world.

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