Temporary Exhibitions | National Museums in Berlin

Gesichter der Renaissance. Masterpieces of Italian Portraiture

Thu, 25 Aug 2011 00:00:00 +0200

25 August - 20 November 2011
Bode-Museum

The Gemäldegalerie and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York have undertaken a landmark project tracing the development of the Italian portrait in the fifteenth century. In Berlin the event takes place in autumn 2011 in the beautifully restored Bode-Museum, it is subsequently on view at the Metropolitan Museum. The show is placed under the auspices of the Foreign Office of the Federal Republic of Germany.

Karl Friedrich Schinkel (I). Die erste Italienische Reise

Tue, 21 Sep 2010 00:00:00 +0200

21 September - 28 November 2010
Alte Nationalgalerie

Göttliches Walten und Irdisches Glück - Volkstümliche chinesische Drucke Die Sammlung Gerd und Lotti Wallenstein, Teil I

Tue, 15 Jun 2010 00:00:00 +0200

15 June - 17 October 2010
Museen Dahlem

Die Ostasiatische Sammlung des Museums für Asiatische Kunst besitzt 485 Blätter chinesischer Neujahrsbilder aus der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, die dem Museum von den Sammlern Charlotte und Gerd Wallenstein übereignet wurden. Beide lebten zwischen 1940 und 1947 im nordostchinesischen Tianjin, wo sie die außergewöhnlichen Werke zusammentrugen.

Bruce Nauman. Dream Passage

Fri, 28 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

28 May - 10 October 2010
Hamburger Bahnhof

‘Dream Passage’ marks the first major retrospective by American artist Bruce Nauman in Berlin. The exhibition, hosted by the National Gallery in the Hamburger Bahnhof and set to open in summer 2010, has been occasioned by the successful installation of the spectacular architectural sculpture entitled ‘Room with My Soul Left Out, Room That Does Not Care’ from 1984 that was accepted by the National Gallery as a gift and which is now due to be permanently erected in Hall 5 of the Hamburger Bahnhof’s Rieckhallen in accordance with the artist’s own instructions. The whole-room sculpture intended for visitors to walk through is the high point of a series of works entitled ‘Dream Passages’ inspired by a dream dreamt by the artist himself. The work has not been seen since its first installation in 1984 in the Leo Castelli Gallery in New York.

Ein neuer Blick. Architekturfotografie aus den Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin

Thu, 27 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

27 May - 5 September 2010
Museum für Fotografie

Mit verborgenen Schätzen der Architekturfotografie aus den Sammlungen der Staatlichen Museen eröffnet diese erste Ausstellung im restaurierten Kaisersaal des Museums für Fotografie. Fast alle Häuser der Staatlichen Museen erwarben seit ihrer Gründung vor 150 Jahren Fotografien, die zumeist dokumentarischen Zwecken im musealen Gebrauch dienten. Besonders prominent vertreten ist darunter die Gattung der Architekturfotografie.

Vodou. Art and Cult from Haiti

Wed, 19 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

19 May - 24 October 2010
Museen Dahlem

The word 'Vodou' conjures up diverse images of zombies rising from the grave and voodoo dolls being pricked with needles. However these clichés initially arose from reports over Haiti made by Europeans and Americans and later from the Hollywood film industry, which wove these themes into ever more monstrous images.

Die schönsten deutschen Bücher 2009

Mon, 10 May 2010 00:00:00 +0200

10 - 30 May 2010
Kunstbibliothek

Nach den Kriterien "Vorbildlich in Gestaltung, Konzeption und Verarbeitung" werden seit mehr als 50 Jahren die jeweils schönsten Bücher eines Jahrganges ermittelt.
Während die Ausstellung KIOSK ihren Blick auf herausragende Bücher und Zeitschriften, vornehmlich Kunst- und Designpublikationen unabhängiger Verlage richtete, steht im von der Stiftung Buchkunst geführten Wettbewerb um die schönsten Bücher, das sog. Gebrauchsbuch im Mittelpunkt.

Double Sexus. Bellmer - Bourgeois

Sat, 24 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

24 April - 15 August 2010
Sammlung Scharf-Gerstenberg

Bodies morph and dissolve, limbs go missing, while others multiply; male and female sexual forms merge into each other and give birth to androgynous beings – the sexually charged work of Hans Bellmer (1902–1975) and Louise Bourgeois (born 1911) bare many striking parallels to each other.

‘Feelings are a private concern’. Verism and the New Objectivity

Fri, 23 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

23 April - 15 August 2010
Sonderausstellungshallen Kulturforum

Verism and the New Objectivity were defining art styles for the Weimar Republic. Artists such as Otto Dix, George Grosz, Max Beckmann, Conrad Felixmüller, Alexander Kanoldt, Franz Radziwill, Christian Schad, Rudolf Schlichter, Georg Schrimpf, the sculptor Eugen Hoffmann and others used their art as a response to the traumatic experience of the First World War and the utopias of Expressionism that were shattered along with it.

Sixties Fashion

Thu, 8 Apr 2010 00:00:00 +0200

8 April - 1 August 2010
Kunstbibliothek

Mit der Ausstellung "High Sixties Fashion: Modefotografie und -illustration" setzt die Sammlung Modebild - Lipperheidesche Kostümbibliothek ihre Reihe der
Bestandspräsentationen ab April fort. Der Schwerpunkt liegt nun in den "High Sixties" - zwischen 1964 und 1969 - entstandenen Modebildern aus London, Paris, Deutschland, den USA und Italien.

A Collector’s Fortune. Islamic World Masterpieces in the Keir Collection.

Thu, 18 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

18 March 2010 - until further notice
Pergamonmuseum

Known around the world as the ‘Keir Collection’, Edmund de Unger’s collection of Islamic art will, over the coming years, enrich works belonging to the National Museums in Berlin’s Museum of Islamic Art as a group loan. The Keir Collection comprises works from nearly all periods and artistic styles from the core Islamic countries around the Mediterranean, from Iran and Central Asia.

Modern Times. The Collection. 1900-1945. New National Gallery

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

12 March 2010 - until further notice
Neue Nationalgalerie

The true extent of the wealth of artworks owned by the National Gallery is to be revealed as never before. From March 2010 onwards, paintings and sculptures from the classical modernist period up to 1945 will go on display to the public. This will be followed by a second show featuring works from the period after the Second World War.

An Indian Aristocrat. Louis Henri de Polier and His Collection Albums

Fri, 5 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0100

5 March - 30 May 2010
Pergamonmuseum

The Museum of Islamic Art owns a series of Indo-Persian art albums, compiled by the Swiss Louis Henri de Polier (1741–1795). Polier was a Huguenot from Lausanne of French decent, who travelled to India as chief engineer for the English East India Company and once there soon entered into the service of the North Indian Prince Shuja-ud-Daula of Awadh.

‘Brutus’ from the Capitol.

Wed, 24 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

24 February - 2 May 2010
Altes Museum

At the beginning of February, the Collection of Classical Antiquities will receive one of the most famous and accomplished antique bronzes as a loan from Rome: the bust of the figure identified as ‘Brutus’ from the Capitoline Museums, which has been synonymous with the Eternal City itself ever since the Renaissance.

Ideal Landscapes. Aspects of Literary Painting in Japan

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

23 February - 30 May 2010
Museen Dahlem

The landscape established itself as an important theme in East Asian painting as long ago as the first millennium. Waterfalls, rivers or lakes and mountains illustrate the forces of nature and in China they served as an idealized image of the cosmos. For the educated elite of the literary-minded who mostly rose from the class of land-owning officials, the topic also brought with it the yearning for a refined life spent in harmony with nature, dedicated to cultivating the noble arts of poetry, music, painting and calligraphy.

Die Sammlungen. The Collections. Les Collections

Tue, 16 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

16 February - 11 April 2010
Hamburger Bahnhof

The Nationalgalerie im Hamburger Bahnhof - Museum für Gegenwart - Berlin presents on over 10 000 sqm works from its famous collections. The exhibition uses thematic, monographic and motivic constellations, surprising dialogues and individual appearances rich in associations to cast works from the Nationalgalerie, the Marx and Marzona Collections as well as the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection in Hamburger Bahnhof in all parts of the museum. At selected points the museum's collections are complemented by works – a spectacular ceiling painting by Daniel Richter and a newly designed museum’s passage by Robert Kusmirowski – loaned by artists, some specially created for the rooms at the Hamburger Bahnhof, as well as by loans from the rich collections of Berlin's museum landscape.

Rudolf Stingel. Live

Wed, 10 Feb 2010 00:00:00 +0100

10 February - 24 May 2010
Neue Nationalgalerie

The Tyrolean-born artist Rudolf Stingel has designed an installation especially for the Neue Nationalgalerie which takes the architecture of Mies van der Rohe as its point of departure and transforms the iconic buildings character with imposing results.

Drawn in Light. Carl Blechen: The Amalfi Sketchbook

Fri, 29 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

29 January - 11 April 2010
Alte Nationalgalerie

Carl Blechen’s ‘Amalfi Sketchbook’ is one of the outstanding artistic fruits of his Italian journey in 1828 and ranks as one of the most important achievements in the art of drawing in the 19th century. The evaluation of Blechen’s place in art history as the precursor of realistic and impressionistic landscape art is principally based on the sepia drawings contained in this sketchbook which are positively aglow in light and were until recently described as being near abstract in nature. The drawings were created during an eight-day stay in Mühltal and in the mountain region near Amalfi.

Walton Ford. Bestiarium

Sat, 23 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

23 January - 24 May 2010
Hamburger Bahnhof

At first glance Walton Ford's large-scale animal watercolour paintings evoke prints by French and British colonial-era illustrators from the 19th century. After closer examination however, they reveal a pictorial universe of complex and disturbing allusions. The various tigers, lions, birds and primates that populate the life-size pictures appear as vivacious protagonists locked in allegorical struggles. The resulting combination of historical fact, natural history inquiry and surreal imaginings give rise to a brilliant 'Bestiarium'.

Cultural Pictures from China - 100 Years of Sinology in Germany. Collections and works by Otto Franke (1863-1946)

Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:00 +0100

15 January - 24 May 2010
Museen Dahlem

In May 1910 the first German chair for the ‘Languages and History of East Asia’ was founded at the Hamburg Colonial Institute, a post that was taken up by the sinologist Otto Franke (1863-1946) on 1 January 1910 in a move which marked the inception of institutional Sino studies in German.

Meisterwerke japanischer Kunst aus der Sammlung Klaus F. Naumann

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

15 December 2009 - 4 April 2010
Museen Dahlem

In wechselnden Ausstellungen präsentiert das Museum in einem eigenen Raum japanische Malerei und Mingei-Keramik aus der großzügigen Dauerleihgabe des in Tokyo lebenden Sammlers Klaus F. Naumann.

Painting by the Shanghai School

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

1 December 2009 - 21 March 2010
Museen Dahlem

In the second half of the 19th century, the coastal city of Shanghai experienced a sudden economic boom that also attracted many artists to the city. Their clients and patrons came from the prospering classes of merchants who tended to prefer a sensual style of painting that drew from everyday life.

Portrait, Figure, Sketch. English drawings from the 18th century

Tue, 1 Dec 2009 00:00:00 +0100

1 December 2009 - 28 March 2010
Gemäldegalerie

From December 2009, the Gemäldegalerie will host a small exhibition by the Museum of Prints and Drawings, comprising selected sheets of English drawings which shed light on this particular aspect of the collection for the first time ever.

Art Inspired by Humboldt. Travel Studies from Central and South America

Fri, 13 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

13 November 2009 - 11 April 2010
Kupferstichkabinett

In the 19th century, following the footsteps of Alexander von Humboldt, the painters Johann Moritz Rugendas, Ferdinand Bellermann and Eduard Hildebrandt undertook extensive journeys through Latin America. The travel sketches and nature studies they produced there, inspired by Humboldt and highly regarded throughout Europe, amount to a heyday in the representations of the American Subcontinent. Portraying landscapes, flora and fauna, as well as hamlets, peoples, customs and habits, the artists created a fascinating picture of the areas they visited.

Tropical Arcadia. Early Photography in Ceylon

Thu, 5 Nov 2009 00:00:00 +0100

5 November 2009 - 30 May 2010
Museen Dahlem

The exhibition presents a selection of rare vintage prints from the end of the 19th century that document the high quality of colonial-era photography in British Ceylon. On display are exquisite examples of picturesque landscape photographs, plant portraits and still lifes of fruits by renowned photographers.

Paul Pfeiffer "The Saints"

Sat, 10 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0200

10 October 2009 - 2 May 2010
Hamburger Bahnhof

Paul Pfeiffer's ground-breaking video and sculpture works explore the power of image culture and reflect how images are made. His works invite the audience to shift focus. The centerpiece of this exhibition is Pfeiffer's sound and video installation "The Saints", a restaging of the legendary 1966 World Cup final between West Germany and England in London's Wembley Stadium.

Strong Women - in Miniature Form. The portrayal of women on coins from Antiquity to the present day

Thu, 8 Oct 2009 00:00:00 +0200

8 October 2009 - 31 December 2010
Pergamonmuseum

Alongside their monetary function, coins are at once the national emblems of states and representations of political power. Women subsequently only usually feature on them in the form of a picture or circumscription when they actually held a position of government or in their capacity as the wives and daughters of rulers.

Lost in Berlin – Rediscovered in Prague. A Masterpiece once from the Berlin ‘Cabinet of Art’

Fri, 18 Sep 2009 00:00:00 +0200

18 September 2009 - 26 September 2010
Schloss Köpenick

The artistically highly significant fragment of an ivory flagon, adorned with figures of deities created by Michael Maucher was originally owned by the Berlin Kunstkammer or ‘Cabinet of Art’. The work originates from around 1700 in Würzburg and was, until 1939, on display in the Berlin Palace in the Schwarze Adlerkammer as part of the Museum of Decorative Art’s collection. During the war and as part of the evacuation efforts for the museum’s collection, the flagon was housed a few kilometres away from the Palace, in the district of Friedrichshain’s flak tower (a massive concrete blockhouse that doubled as an air-raid shelter and anti-aircraft artillery platform).

Childhood on the River Nile. Toys - Clothes - Images of Children from Egypt in the National Museums in Berlin

Fri, 10 Jul 2009 00:00:00 +0200

10 July 2009 - 6 June 2010
Bode-Museum

Toys, clothing, shoes and education - in the Egypt of late antiquity children also had their own realm of experience. An insight into this world of theirs is provided by the small exhibition 'Childhood on the River Nile' with exhibits ranging from the third century BC to the eighth century AD.

Helmut Newton: Sumo

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0200

4 June 2009 - 16 May 2010
Museum für Fotografie

With SUMO, the Helmut Newton Foundation presents what might just be the most spectacular and expensive photography book project ever. Ten years ago, publisher Benedikt Taschen persuaded Helmut Newton to agree to produce a gigantic book with a print run of 10,000 copies, all signed by the photographer. Accompanied by a custom-made book holder by Philippe Starck, the book found its way into the homes of well-heeled buyers.

Three Boys from Pasadena

Thu, 4 Jun 2009 00:00:00 +0200

4 June 2009 - 16 May 2010
Museum für Fotografie

Wie bereits in früheren Ausstellungen der Helmut Newton Stiftung wird auch diesmal – parallel zur SUMO-Ausstellung von Newton – das Werk seiner Wegbegleiter präsentiert. Mark Arbeit, George Holz und Just Loomis waren Studenten am Design College im kalifonischen Pasadena, als Newton sie Ende der 1970er Jahre kennen lernte, später assistierten sie ihm immer wieder.

Zeiträume. Miletus in the Roman Empire and Late Antiquity

Wed, 6 May 2009 00:00:00 +0200

6 May 2009 - 21 March 2010
Pergamonmuseum

The exhibition presents selected artefacts from the Asian Minor metropolis of Miletus. On display are architectural structures, sculptures and inscriptions from the Collection of Classical Antiquities' own collection, with the newly restored market gate of Miletus in the hall of Roman architecture forming the heart of the exhibition.

Portraits from the Mughal era

Tue, 3 Feb 2009 00:00:00 +0100

3 February 2009 - 30 May 2010
Museen Dahlem

The Collection of South, South-East and Central Asian Art contains a significant collection of portrait paintings dating from the time of Mughal rule (1526‒1858). A small, exquisite selection from the rich collection of Indian miniature painting will be on display until September in the Buchkunst-Kabinett. Alongside classic portraits in the Mughal style, visitors will also have the chance to admire Sikh style 'garden portraits' and paintings from Rajasthan and the Dekkhan.

The Return of the Gods. Berlin's Hidden Olympus

Thu, 27 Nov 2008 00:00:00 +0100

27 November 2008 - 11 April 2010
Pergamonmuseum

Since the autumn of 2008 the National Museums in Berlin are commemorating the return of museum pieces from the Soviet Union to Berlin that took place in 1958. To also mark the occasion, the Collection of Classical Antiquities will be placing 170 art works on display, which, for restoration purposes, had had to remain in storage until now. The sculptures, vases and craftwork objects stand as representatives for thousands of art works which came back to Berlin after a period of exile in Moscow and St. Petersburg lasting thirteen years, the most important of which was the frieze of the world famous Pergamon Altar.

Yearning for Jerusalem. Paths to the Holy Sepulchre

Mon, 15 Sep 2008 00:00:00 +0200

15 September 2008 - 31 December 2010
Kloster Stift zum Heiligengrabe

The year 2004 saw the signing of a cooperation agreement between the Museum of European Cultures and the cloister of the Kloster Stift zum Heiligengrabe as part of the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage's Federal Programme. At the heart of the agreement is the ecumenical collection entitled "The Gospel in the Homes of the People. Sammlung Gertrud Weinhold" which takes a comparative look between the denominations.

The Children's Gallery at the Bode Museum. A Play of Colours and Shapes - Mosaic Art at the Bode Museum

Thu, 22 Nov 2007 00:00:00 +0100

22 November 2007 - 27 June 2010
Bode-Museum

The interactive exhibition introduces young visitors to the technique of making mosaics. A 6th century ‘building site’ invites children to explore the work processes, materials and historic tools involved in mosaic production.