Review

Art in Berlin 1945 until now

Presentation of the collection

The Berlinische Galerie collects art produced in Berlin since 1870. The focus in our current presentation lies on painting, graphic art, sculpture, photography and architecture from the end of the Second World War to the present day.

By contrast to the previous, largely chronologically arranged exhibition concept Art in Berlin 1880 to 1980 the current exhibition approaches outstanding artistic tendencies after 1945. Key works in the collection will be gathered thematically in four stylistic blocks: “Expressive”, “Constructive”, “Realistic” and “Conceptual”.

The second half of the 20th century can no longer be presented as a sequence of styles; it is characterised instead by a simultaneity of numerous artistic approaches. Representational and abstract art exist in parallel, documentary and socially critical strategies stand alongside works that no longer reveal any visible reference to external reality. This presentation of the collection shows central works in an interdisciplinary fashion, interwoven to create exciting reciprocal dialogues. Due to the large number of international artists working in Berlin, the result is a comprehensive survey of art developments in the last decades pointing far beyond the city’s boundaries.

Artists (selected): Frank Badur, Horst Bartnig, Angela Bulloch, Rainer Fetting, Tacita Dean, Peter Eisenman und Richard Serra, Johannes Geccelli, Nicholas Grimshaw, Ulrike Grossarth, Beate Gütschow, Werner Heldt, Leiko Ikemura, Edward Kienholz und Nancy Reddin Kienholz, Via Lewandowsky, Walter Libuda, Jeanne Mammen, Marwan, J. Mayer H., Hans W. Mende, Harald Metzkes, Manfred Schiedhelm, Cornelia Schleime, Eugen Schönebeck, Bernard Schultze, Walter Stöhrer, Katja Strunz, Fred Thieler, Bernd Trasberger, Klaus Vogelgesang, Wolf Vostell