Events

Cold War to the Cosmos: Distant Early Warning Systems and the Arctic examines the strategic significance of the Arctic during the Cold War, a period defined by intense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union. This atomic age saw the two nations rapidly advance their nuclear programs and exert influence around the world. The Cold War had a broad impact on American society, the physical landscape, and the national desire to control and even militarize outer space. American politics, art, and culture also reflected the specter of global communism and fears of nuclear war and everything from Abstract Expressionism to Jazz were enlisted for propaganda. Today’s global conflicts recall the heightened tensions and military brinkmanship of the Cold War. Competing political and religious philosophies, climate change, and a new space race to Mars prompt us to again consider the Cold War's legacy and Buckminster Fuller’s vision of "Spaceship Earth," where shared responsibility and collaboration are key to addressing contemporary issues and ensuring a sustainable future for all.

Liz Collins: Motherlode celebrates the richly varied career and work of the New York-based Queer feminist artist known for her bold abstract patterns, inventive use of materials, and radical experiments with fiber. Over the past three decades, Collins (b. 1968) has excavated deep below the surface of established ways of making, bringing to light eye-dazzling creations that disrupt the boundaries between art, design, and craft.

Family: (Nearly) everyone has a family, and yet every family is different! But what’s the stitching that keeps families together? And who’s really responsible for spinning it? In a year-long programme, the Humboldt Forum is exploring the stuff that family ties are made of. Are they full of holes or tightly woven; do they hang on a thread, or are they patchwork or perhaps macramé? It is all about networks of relationships – from artistic, historical, scientific, and international perspectives, and in dialogue with the people of Berlin.

The collection tells of individual fates, hidden stories, and remarkable artistic rediscoveries. In this way, the museum makes a significant contribution to the critical engagement with the past and present, keeping these stories alive. This work is made possible by the non-profit foundation behind it, which is committed to preserving the museum and its research. As one of the few remaining Holocaust survivors, museum founder Prof. Dr. Heinz R. Böhme has made it his mission to preserve his collection of around 700 artworks for future generations.

The Saint Louis Art Museum will present a landmark exhibition of the work of Anselm Kiefer, one of the most influential and provocative artists of our time. “ANSELM KIEFER: becoming the ocean” will be the first comprehensive survey of Kiefer’s work in the United States in more than 20 years and will present works from the 1960s to the present. The show will occupy approximately 30,000 square feet of gallery space—making it SLAM’s largest single exhibition in decades—and will be presented with free admission for all visitors. “Anselm Kiefer: Becoming the Ocean” is scheduled to open in late October or early November 2025, and run through January 2026.

Magic permeates language and everyday life. We talk about the magic of certain moments, or of things having an inherent magic. Occult motifs, astrology, and esoteric practices such as tarot card reading are also enjoying a resurgence in mainstream popular culture. However, this apparent new trend on social media actually has a long-standing tradition. Although mystical, spiritual, and esoteric aspects and interests have often been dismissed as superstition and as being incompatible with modern scientific values—even sanctioned as a disturbance of established orders—they also have a long tradition in art and culture. With growing introspection and spiritual sensitivity, as well as the diversification and globalization of the art world in recent decades, activist and feminist concerns in particular are becoming increasingly linked to spiritual, magical, and occult perspectives. What was once dismissed as irrational, superstitious, or folkloric is now gaining cultural and political significance, serving artists as both an aesthetic strategy and a form of self-empowerment and emancipation from capitalist and patriarchal structures.

The year 2025 marks 35 years since the works of the exceptional American artist Louise Nevelson (1899 near Kiev — 1988 New York) were shown in the highly-praised exhibition „Women Artists of the 20th Century“ in Wiesbaden. Now, a solo exhibition is dedicated to her empathetic and material-rich art, with a special focus on her lesser-known collages. Nevelson created monochrome sculptures sprayed entirely in black, white, or gold, establishing an equivalence among the elements she assembles. In her smaller-format collages, she incorporated surprising color accents, foregrounding the structure of the materials, resulting in minimalist and experimental forms that referenced her sculptures. The exhibition features around ten large-format assemblages and sculptures, along with over 50 collages from different creative periods presented in an engaging dialogue.

In the 1920s, the Viennese philosopher and economist Otto Neurath revolutionized the way social science and policy can be transmitted to a wider public. Seeking to democratize knowledge via a new method of visual communication, he founded the Museum of Society and Economics as a showcase for his work. By the 1930s, Neurath’s approach to illustrating statistics was used globally. Developed in close partnership with graphic designer Marie Reidemeister and artist Gerd Arntz, the Viennese method became known as “Isotype” (International System of Typographic Picture Education).

The reciprocal relationship between objects and their surroundings is at the core of Iman Issa's work. After studying philosophy, which evidently shapes Issa's practice structured into hypotheses and proofs, the Cairo-born artist primarily employed the medium of photography. Today, her studies mostly take on sculptural form, with photography, video, and the written word as further consistencies. Issa asks to which extent the perception of objects is shaped by their geographical, historical, and social circumstances. Is an object or an image at the mercy of its viewers' interpretations, so that its meaning is constantly in flux? Conversely, to what extent does an object, such as a monument or a historical building, shape memory? This prompts the related question of whether there are forms that are in such consonance with their meaning that they are immune to arbitrary interpretation. Issa pursues these considerations using various methods: In her work series titled "Heritage Studies" (since 2015), she draws on existing historical artifacts. Although her own objects, or “displays” as Issa calls them, do not resemble the originals in size, color or material, the artist considers them to be fundamentally identical. Her "Proxies" engage with the genre of the self-portrait: the wall-mounted oval sculptures bearing names such as William S. Burroughs, Georges Henein or Hannah Arendt are accompanied by short aphorisms that can be read as condensations of the respective body of thought. What would a monument to a thought look like, these sculptures seem to ask, detached from the conventions of representation, which, as is so often the case, are either physiognomic, motif-driven, or metaphorical. Works by Iman Issa from the last decade will be presented at the Lenbachhaus. Curated by Stephanie Weber

Ulla von Brandenburg's multifaceted and multi-layered work is characterised by a multimedia practice that finds its characteristic expression in expansive, site-specific installations. The forms of expression and methods of theatre are an important starting point: the artist creates stage-like settings from architectural set pieces and curtains, in which films, drawings, sculptural objects and textile works enter into a complex interplay with dance, performance and song. The boundaries between inside and outside, reality and illusion become blurred.

The Städel Museum has one of the most important Beckmann collections in the world. His works have been collected and studied for more than 100 years. In the winter of 2025, the Städel Museum will turn the spotlight on Max Beckmann (1884–1950) as a draughtsman. Around eighty works—many of them on public display for the first time—will document the development of his graphic œuvre, from early sketches to late painterly masterpieces.