Events

After more than 25 years of enthusiastic collecting, the museum's exhibits now comprise about 300 drawings, more than 500 prints, and all her posters and sculptures. Among the drawings - a focal point of the collection - there are some of her most impressive works, many from her later phase when she was predominantly preoccupied with the theme of death. Of her earlier work, three of the less than ten pastel and charcoal drawings that have been preserved and which she produced for the satirical periodical "Simplicissimus" are represented in the museum's collection. Sketch-like preparatory drawings, which throw light on the genesis of important prints, are also part of the collection. A focal point of these works is the history of the creation of her cycle entitled "Peasants' War" (1901-1908) and her series named "War" (1921/1922). In the field of prints all her great cycles are represented. These are milestones not only in the development of Käthe Kollwitz' work, but also in the development of 20th century prints in general. These prints include her earlier cycles "A Weavers' Revolt" (1893-1897) and "Peasants' War" (1901-1908) which were based on literary models, the woodcut series "War" (1921-1922), "Proletariat" (1925) and the later series of lithographs "Death" (1934-1937). In addition, the collection comprises individual works such as her last lithograph "Seed for sowing should not be milled" from the year 1941, which is the artist's legacy in her fight against war and the death of soldiers in action. Recently, the Käthe Kollwitz Museum in Cologne succeeded in acquiring very rare prints from an important private collection which had been largely unknown to the general public. Among them are three early self-portraits: two etchings and a large-scale colour lithograph from 1903/4. The "Self-portrait en face" is printed in four colours. Being an experimental leaf, no further prints were made. For this reason, this print is unique and a highlight in the artist's œuvre as well as an example of the museum's successful acquisition policy. The 15 bronze sculptures are of particular importance as almost all the examples shown in the museum are rare early casts. Together with the copy of "The Mourning Parents" in the ruin of the church of Alt St. Alban and the relief on the Levy tombstone in the Jewish cemetery in Bocklemünd, Cologne provides the unique opportunity of an overview of the artist's complete sculptural work. The Kollwitz posters, all of which are represented in the museum, are a rare highlight of the collection. The artist created them above all in the 1920s following her motto "I would like to exert influence in these times". The posters express an anti-war message and emphasise the artist's commitment to social justice, humanity and peace. Another part of the collection which is meanwhile almost complete is Käthe Kollwitz' book illustrations. All the works by Käthe Kollwitz illustrated in our Internet presentation are part of the collection of the Käthe Kollwitz Museum Köln.

Drawing primarily from the National Portrait Gallery’s vast collection of self-portraits, this exhibition will explore how American artists have chosen to portray themselves since the beginning of the last century. As people are confronted each day with “selfies” via social media and as they continue to examine the fluidity of contemporary identity, this is an opportune time to reassess the significance of self-portraiture in relation to the country’s history and culture. The exhibition will feature more than 75 works by artists such as Josef Albers, Patricia Cronin, Imogen Cunningham, Elaine de Kooning, Edward Hopper, Joan Jonas, Jacob Lawrence, Alice Neel, Louise Nevelson, Diego Rivera, Lucas Samaras, Fritz Scholder, Roger Shimomura, Shahzia Sikander and Martin Wong. “Eye to I: Self-Portraits from 1900 to Today” is curated by Brandon Brame Fortune, chief curator, National Portrait Gallery. This exhibition concludes the Portrait Gallery’s 50th anniversary celebrations, and an expanded, illustrated companion book will be published in spring 2019.

This exhibition is the first devoted to the family portraiture of Frans Hals (1582/83–1666), one of the foremost painters of the Dutch Golden Age. Organized by the Toledo Museum of Art and the Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium in Brussels, the exhibition was prompted by the Toledo Museum of Art’s acquisition in 2011 of Frans Hals’s Van Campen Family Portrait in a Landscape, as well as the recent conservation of Brussels’ Three Children of the Van Campen Family. These two works originally formed one composition, separated for unknown reasons likely in the late 18th century or early 19th century. The exhibition reunites the sections of the Toledo/Brussels painting, where it will be shown with the three other family portraits painted by the artist, and includes loans from the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the National Gallery in London, the Cincinnati Art Museum and other distinguished collections.

Our first show of 2019 will showcase the highly original landscapes of the Norwegian symbolist artist, Harald Sohlberg (1869 – 1935), arguably one of the greatest masters of landscape painting in the history of Norwegian art. Timed to coincide with the 150th anniversary of Sohlberg’s birth it will be the first major show of his work outside of Norway. Like Edvard Munch, Sohlberg strongly denied the influence of other contemporary artists, disassociating himself from discussions about where he belonged in the history of art. Instead, he relegated the origins of his artistic awakening to his own psyche and to the intense stories and mythologies of the Norwegian land. Consequently, Sohlberg’s paintings depict the wilderness of the Nordic landscape, the soft beauty of the flower fields and the harsh cold of the winter. This major retrospective will show the breadth and ambiguity of Sohlberg’s art whilst revealing its relevance beyond Norway’s borders. It will trace Sohlberg’s entire artistic career, from his earliest production as a twenty-year-old in 1889 through to the last year of his life and reveal influences such as Norwegian Naturalism and Symbolism, which he was exposed to during his training in Copenhagen and Christiania. The exhibition will also include Sohlberg’s iconic landscape, Winter Night in the Mountains, regarded as the ‘National Painting of Norway’.

Agnes Pelton: Desert Transcendentalist is the first survey of this obscure American painter in over 24 years. Born to American parents in Stuttgart, Germany, Pelton (1881-1961) and her family briefly lived in Basel, Switzerland before returning to the United States in 1888. A graduate of the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, she began experimenting with abstraction in the early 1900s in New York, eventually exhibiting in the Armory Show of 1913 at the invitation of Walt Kuhn. Intentionally moving away from the “mainstream” arts community, Pelton eventually settled in Cathedral City, California. She painted conventional desert landscapes to make a living, but it was her abstract studies of earth and light, biomorphic compositions of delicate veils, shimmering stars, and atmospheric horizon lines, that distinguished her work. A believer in numerology, astrology, and faith healing, Pelton’s abstract compositions propelled her into an esoteric world epitomized by the Transcendental Painting Group (1938-1942), a short-lived group that promoted abstract, non-objective art. Although Pelton received some attention during her lifetime, she has been relatively unknown within the field of American Art. Approximately 40 – 45 works will comprise this exhibition shedding light on Pelton’s artistic contribution to American Modernism, while examining her practice against a broader, international framework of spiritual and esoteric abstraction. Accompanied by a fully illustrated exhibition publication edited by the organizing curator of the exhibition, Gilbert Vicario with contributions by Elizabeth Armstrong, Director, Palm Springs Museum of Art; Dr. Michael Zakian, Director, Frederick R. Weisman Museum of Art, Pepperdine University; Dr. Susan Aberth, Associate Professor of Art History; Coordinator, Theology, Bard College; and Dr. Erika Doss, Professor, Department of American Studies, University of Notre Dame.

Fiction and Fabrication gathers nearly 50 artists who build and manipulate images of architectural objects and spaces. Marking 30 years since Photoshop was invented, and digital tools invaded photographic production, this exhibition focuses on the imagery of architecture as a central theme to an expanded practice of photography in contemporary art. From the seminal works of Andreas Gurski, Thomas Ruff, Jeff Wall or Thomas Demand to the fictional creations of Beate Gütschow, Oliver Boberg or Isabel Brison, the show offers a panorama of architectural photography that evades objective approaches and favours fictionalised takes on reality between cinematic gazes, image deconstruction and more politicised narratives. At a time when digital tools preside over the making of architectural images for media consumption, fictions stemming from the art world appear here as a critical alternative that questions and expands the concept of architecture.

Monumental wood sculptures by Ursula von Rydingsvard (b. 1942, Deensen, Germany) evoke the grandeur and power of nature. They simultaneously bear evidence of the artist’s meticulous process of cutting, shaping, and assembling thousands of cedar blocks. The Contour of Feeling focuses on von Rydingsvard’s artistic development since 2000 and her continued commitment to experimentation. The presentation includes many sculptures not previously exhibited in the United States. Made from wood or other organic materials, including leather, silk, and hair, these works present a window into the emotional fragility and imposing scale that define von Rydingsvard’s art. The exhibition is organized by the Fabric Workshop and Museum, Philadelphia, and marks the artist’s first solo exhibition in Washington, D.C.

Boxing in Cuba is much more than a sport, it is part of Cuban culture, not unlike soccer in Germany. However, the importance of boxing for young people' in Cuba is of a much more vital quality. Boxing is a possibility to fight for something beyond titles and awards, it is the possibility to fight for a better life. Katharina Alt, who completed part of her training as a photographer in Neu-Ulm, travels to Cuba at the end of 2015, to experience and document the meaning of boxing in Cuban society. She doesn't focus on the internationally successful professionals, the world champions and Olympic gold medalists. Naturally, Alt doesn't ignore them, but she doesn't idolise them either: Her approach to photographing them is unpretentious and personal, just as she approaches the young boys practicing, the coaches and doctors, active boxers and retired athletes. Likewise, Alt does not focus on boxing as a sports event or the ring, she also shows people in private, their homes, out on the streets, totally relaxed. „Boxing Cuba“ is not just a documentary about boxing in Cuba, it is a very special view on Cuban culture. Opening: Friday, 22 Märch 2019, 7-9 pm

When Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque pioneered Cubism in the early years of the twentieth century, they set off a revolution in visual art. The new style’s fragmented forms signal a fundamental change in how painting relates to the visible world. The Cubists rank as one of the most influential movements in art history; their works are adventures for the eyes even today, challenging our habits of perception. Produced in cooperation with the Centre Pompidou, the exhibition The Cubist Cosmos. From Picasso to Léger is the first to unite both museums’ Cubist masterworks for a reconstruction of the wider context in which the world-famous treasures bequeathed to the Kunstmuseum Basel by Raoul La Roche were created. Rounded out by masterpieces on loan from international collections, the presentation showcases ca. 130 works to illuminate this seminal chapter in the history of art.

The Stedelijk Museum presents the first retrospective of Maria Lassnig (1919 - 2014) in the Netherlands. The Austrian artist is internationally regarded as one of the twentieth century’s foremost artistic figures although is almost unknown in the Netherlands. Lassnig became best known for her "Körperbewusstseinsbilder" (body awareness paintings), in which she depicted the sensations experienced by her body and in this way defined her relationship to the world. In addition to her paintings and drawings, the show will also feature many of her films and sculptures, and never-before-seen works. The exhibition was produced in collaboration with the Albertina Museum in Vienna, where it will be on display from 6 September to 1 December 2019.

In 2019, Germany will mark the 100th anniversary of the Bauhaus, the legendary school of art design originally founded in Weimar. On this occasion, the Klassik Stiftung Weimar will open the new Bauhaus Museum Weimar and a new exhibition on modernism at the turn of the 20th century at the Neues Museum Weimar on 6 April. Both museums are located at the heart of a new cultural quarter which will highlight the eventful history of modernism in Weimar’s urban infrastructure. Featuring contemporary architecture and innovative exhibition design, the Bauhaus Museum Weimar will present numerous treasures from the world’s oldest Bauhaus collection for the first time. All further information can be found under: www.bauhausmuseumweimar.de

The former Grand Ducal Museum was built in 1869 – one of the first museums in Germany. In 2019, the Neues Museum Weimar will become an integral part of the Quarter of Weimar Modernism centred around the bauhaus museum. In 2020, it will be joined by a Buchenwald Memorial exhibition on the subject of “forced labour” in the south wing of the “Gauforum”, and the House of the Weimar Republic on Theaterplatz. The new permanent exhibition “Van de Velde, Nietzsche and Modernism around 1900” features outstanding international works of Realism, Impressionism and Jugendstil which exemplify a radiant, but ambivalent chapter of art history with numerous references to contemporary trends. Based on the philosopher and cult figure Friedrich Nietzsche, the exhibition will present important works of early modernism in Weimar, including pieces by the Weimar Art School and prominent avant-gardists, e.g. Claude Monet and Max Beckmann, who enjoyed the support of Harry Graf Kessler. The exhibition will also present numerous functional and elegant works designed by Henry van de Velde. A large museum workshop will offer regular and special programmes that invite visitors to actively explore exhibition themes related to handicrafts, such as bookbinding and woodworking. Both the exhibition “Van de Velde, Nietzsche and Modernism around 1900” and the museum-pedagogical workshops in the Neues Museum Weimar are financed by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Free State of Thuringia, represented by the Thuringian State Chancellery, Department of Culture and Art

The exhibition Escape into Art? is the first critical and detailed examination of the artistic practice, scope and everyday life of the former Brücke artists during the Nazi period. The history of the initial members of Brücke – Erich Heckel, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner – during the years 1933 to 1945 has generally been reduced to the ‘defamation’ of their art by the Nazis. This one-dimensional view neither does justice to the complex lived situations of the artists nor explores the contradictions within Nazi cultural policy. In the early days of the Nazi regime, most of the Brücke artists hoped that their art would be acknowledged – a hope that the former indeed partly nourished. Despite the caesuras resulting from the Nazi art policy, the Brücke members (with the exception of Kirchner, who committed suicide in 1938) continued to produce art until the end of the war. To further highlight both the breaks and the continuities in the practices of the Brücke members, this investigative exhibition does not just end in May 1945, but continues with a final chapter in Kunsthaus Dahlem. How did people view the years of Nazi tyranny as of summer 1945? What role did the former Brücke artists play in rebuilding a now divided Germany?

What a shock it must have been for Hendrick ter Brugghen, Gerard van Honthorst, and Dirck van Baburen, three young painters from Utrecht, when they encountered the breathtaking and unorthodox paintings of Caravaggio for the first time in Rome. Described as ‘miraculous things’, his works were marked by an innovative realism, striking drama, and mysterious lighting. He would shape the style of many artists from Italy, France, Spain, and the Netherlands. The exhibition, developed in collaboration with the Centraal Museum in Utrecht, shows over 70 of the most beautiful and important works of the leading ‘Caravaggisti’, including paintings by Bartolomeo Manfredi, Jusepe de Ribera, and Valentin de Boulogne. Placed alongside the works of their painterly colleagues, it becomes immediately apparent why the significant pictures of these Utrecht painters are so typically Dutch and had success both in Italy as well as at home.