Poland and Germany to look back on over 1000 years of shared history in new exhibition

BERLIN.- The Royal Castle in Warsaw and Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin are jointly developing the exhibition entitled “Side by Side. Poland – Germany. A 1000 Years of Art and History”which will be on view in Berlin from September 23, 2011 to January 9, 2012. The project celebrates the first Polish presidency of the EU Council, which will begin in July 2011. The project outline has been supervised by an scientific board headed by Professor Władysław Bartoszewski. The exhibition curator is the Polish art [...]

Major retrospective devoted to Japanese artist Hokusai opens at Martin-Gropius-Bau

BERLIN.- For the first time in Germany a major retrospective is being devoted to the world- famous Japanese artist Hokusai (1760-1849). Perhaps his best-known picture is the woodcut: “The Great Wave off Kanagawa” from the series: “Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji” (1823-29). Over 440 loans, which with few exceptions come from Japan, are on display in the exhibition in Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau. NAGATA Seiji, the leading Japanese authority on Hokusai and his work, curated the exhibition, which is shown exclusively in Berlin. Works [...]

Martin-Gropius-Bau Presents Photographs by Actress Margarita Broich

BERLIN.- As an actress Margarita Broich is one of the big names, but it may come as a surprise to many that she is also a photographer. For the first time the Martin-Gropius-Bau is showing an exhibition of her work consisting of over 60 portraits of her fellow artists, including Ben Becker, Kate Winslet, Veronika Ferres, Klaus Maria Brandauer, Christoph Schlingensief, Thomas Quasthoff and many more. Margarita Broich has captured those fleeting moments when the actor sheds the role in [...]

Drawings from The Museum of Modern Art on View at Martin-Gropius-Bau

BERLIN.- “Compass” presents an extensive selection from The Judith Rothschild Foundation Contemporary Drawings Collection, an extraordinary treasure trove of nearly 2.600 works on paper by over 600 artists, acquired by The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in may 2005. The collection was amassed between 2003 and 2005 with the intention to give a broad overview over the medium of drawing in all its material manifestations at that time. It includes studies and sketches as well as monumental finished works; works [...]

Bortolami Presents Its Second Solo Exhibition of Work by Israel-Born Artist Avner Ben-Gal

NEW YORK, NY.- Bortolami presents its second solo exhibition of Avner Ben-Gal. Smackville draws from abstract and visual representations of the effects of opiate drugs: withdrawal, craving and usage. The show seeks to describe the moment of the chemical reaction when the toxic substance intrudes the body and is infused into the bloodstream. The works convey a will for redemption, rather than a need to be rehabilitated. Avner Ben-Gal, Give Him What You Gave Me, 2010. Acrylic on canvas, 78.74 [...]

Martin-Gropius-Bau Shows the Work of One of the Most Important Exponents of Modernism

BERLIN.- Laszlo‚ Moholy-Nagy (1895-1946) is one of the most important exponents of Modernism. Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bauhas mounted an exhibition of his art as represented by over 200 works: paintings, photographs (black-and-white and colour), photograms, collages, films and graphics. The show will focus on the years in which Moholy-Nagy was developing his theory of art as an art of light. This covers the period from 1922 to the end of his life and beyond, in view of the influence he exerted after his death.  [...]

Master of Abstract Painting Pierre Soulages and His Retrospective at the Martin-Gropius-Bau

BERLIN.- Pierre Soulages is one of the world’s foremost abstract painters of recent decades. On the occasion of his 90th birthday he is being honoured by a retrospective in the Centre Pompidou in Paris. Starting on 2 October 2010 Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau will be showing this exhibition in an altered form. Over 70 pictures of all his creative periods, from the works with walnut stain (1947 to 1949) to the radically black paintings of recent years measuring up three metres high, [...]

Visitors Wait in Line for Seven Hours to See Frida Kahlo Exhibition in Berlin

BERLIN.- The exhibition dedicated to Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) at the prestigious Martin Gropius Bau in Berlin has received thousands of visitors each day who have waited in line for up to seven hours to enter. The exhibition, which closes on August 9, has broken records of visitors nearly every day since its opening in April, but in recent days, the lines are even longer and have a waiting period of four to seven hours. Many people wait with sleeping bags [...]

The Powerful Beauty of the Palace of Versailles at Camera Work

BERLIN.- From May 8 until June 26, 2010, Camera Work exhibits works of photographer Robert Polidori in its gallery showrooms. The exhibition entirely focuses on the powerful beauty of the Palace of Versailles. Polidori’s extensive documentation of the restoration process of the 1980s is supplemented by current works which have never been exhibited before. The exhibited photographs present an exclusive selection of the three-volume illustrated book “Parcours Muséologique Revisité” which was recently released by STEIDL publishing house. The work comprehensively [...]

Most Comprehensive Show of Frida Kahlo’s Work Ever Staged Opens in Berlin

BERLIN.- From 30 April to 9 August 2010 Berlin’s Martin-Gropius-Bau will be devoting an extensive retrospective to the important Mexican artist Frida Kahlo. Born in Coyoacán, Mexico City, Frida Kahlo is one of the great identification figures of Latin American art. She stands out as one of the most famous female artists of the first half of the 20th century. Injured in a traffic accident on 17 September 1925 Frida Kahlo spent the rest of her life in pain as [...]

Olafur Eliasson: Inner City Out Opens at Martin Gropius Bau

BERLIN.- Innen Stadt Außen (Inner City Out) is the first solo exhibition by the Danish-Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson in a Berlin institution. The central theme of the show, which has been curated especially for the Martin-Gropius-Bau by Daniel Birnbaum, is Berlin, the city in which the artist has lived and worked for many years. Here he has set up his multifaceted studio, which combines research, experimentation and production; and as a professor at the Berlin University of the Arts founded [...]

Definitive Retrospective of German Photographer F.C. Gundlach’s Extensive Work in Berlin

BERLIN.- From November 2009 the Martin-Gropius-Bau presents the definitive retrospective of F.C. Gundlach’s extensive photographic work with the exhibition “F.C. Gundlach – Photographic Work”. F.C Gundlach is one of the most famous fashion photographers worked for the most important magazines and publications from the middle of the 1950’s to 1990. Among other many famous pictures the most comprehensive presentation of F.C. Gundlach’s work shows many fameless facets of F.C. Gundlach’s work to date. After years of research, the curators Klaus [...]

Most Extensive Exhibition of Frida Kahlo’s Work Announced at Martin Gropius Bau

BERLIN.- The year 2007 was the hundredth anniversary of the birth of the artist Frida Kahlo. She attained cult status through an art that combined the colourful, cheerful culture of Mexico with the traumatic experiences of her own life. Although this made her the most famous female artist of the first half of the 20th century, in Germany her work was very seldom to be seen in the original. The over 120 paintings and drawings on display in the Martin-Gropius-Bau [...]

Berlin’s Academy of Arts presents Contemporary Art from Istanbul

Berlin – In a series of exhibitions entitled ”Istanbul Next Wave. Simultaneity – Parallels – Opposites” Berlin’s Academy of Arts presents contemporary art from Istanbul. This joint project organised by the city of Istanbul and the Academy of Arts is dedicated to the Istanbul art scene, currently one of the most innovative in the world, and is composed of three exhibitions mounted in the Martin-Gropius-Bau and on the Academy’s Hanseatenweg and Pariser Platz premises. Encompassing over 250 works by 88 artists, the [...]