The inaugural show „Portrait Berlin. Artistic Positions of Berlin’s Postwar Modernism, 1945-1955“ includes selected works of the East and West German postwar art by artists such as Ruthild Hahne, Karl Hartung, Bernhard Heiliger, Jeanne Mammen, Louise Stomps, Heinz Trökes und Hans Uhlmann.

The Kunsthaus Dahlem will exhibit, for the first time ever in Berlin, works by the Jewish painter Armin Stern, largely forgotten after years of living in exile.

In 1950 the Haus der Kunst opened the exhibition »Werke Europäischer Plastik« (Works of European Sculpture). This first European show after the Second World War presented more than seventy works by thirty-five German and eleven French, English, Italian, and Swiss sculptors, including such prominent figures as Henry Moore and Aristide Maillol. Because it placed postwar German sculpture in the context of central artists of Western European modernism, this exhibition is regarded as an initial insight into how German sculptors saw themselves as artists in an international context five years after the National Socialist dictatorship ended.

As part of the exhibition “What Was Europe” at the Kunsthaus Dahlem, the works from the Munich show that could be identified and lent to this exhibition have been assembled once again. The selection is focused on the German artists in the Munich exhibition.

Artists exhibited:
Ernst Barlach, Bernhard Bleeker, Hermann Blumenthal, Georg Brenninger, Alexander Fischer, Hermann Hahn, Philipp Harth, Bernhard Heiliger, Anton Hiller, Ludwig Kasper, Heinrich Kirchner, Richard Knecht, Moissey Kogan, Wilhelm Lehmbruck, Gerhard Marcks, Ewald Mataré, Priska von Martin, Hans Mettl, Georg Müller, Edwin Scharf, Toni Stadler, Josef Wackerle, Hans Wimmer, Fritz Wrampe

Opening: June 28, 2018, 7 p.m.
June 29, 2018–June 2nd, 2019

Based on the material, the sculptor Karol Broniatwoski (* 1945) develops his figurative works. His figures are captured in motion or moments that dissolve and reveal a clear conceptual attitude to the subject of sculpture. The exhibition at the Kunsthaus Dahlem features bronze sculptures from the recent years, juxtaposing them to the unique complex of its large-format gouaches.

Opening: 10. November 2018 | 6 pm

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 exhibition »Escape into Art?« centres around works by Schmidt-Rottluff, Heckel, Pechstein and Kirchner in the Brücke-Museum collection. The presentation seeks to take a multifaceted view and approaches the complexity of the Brücke history – between recognition and ›defamation‹ – by means of artworks and extensive documentation.

Kunsthaus Dahlem dedicates an exhibitions to the most prominent gallery in Berlin, which opened just a few months after the end of World War II and immediately became one of the most important venues for modern and contemporary art. With a selection of the works of art, photographs and original documents shown at the time, the exhibition traces the first five years of the gallery’s existence. Some works can be viewed for the first time since 1945/46 as part of an exhibition.

The competition for the Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner was probably the most important art competition of the post-war period. More than 3,000 artists from all over the world participated, including sculptors and architects such as Max Bill, Alexander Calder, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth, Bernhard Heiliger and Anne Kahane.

Supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin

The competition for a “Monument to the Unknown Political Prisoner” was probably the most important competition of the post-war period. Over 3000 artists from all over the world participated, including sculptors and architects such as Max Bill, Alexander Calder, Naum Gabo, Barbara Hepworth and Bernhard Heiliger. In the context of this competition for a monument that was never realized and is being reconstructed in the Kunsthaus Dahlem, abstract art made a prominent appearance as a symbol of freedom and democracy.

Supported by Hauptstadtkulturfonds Berlin.

The exhibition Spatial Lines: Graphic Works by Hans Uhlmann, 1933–1960 pays tribute to one of the prominent artists in West Germany after 1945. Known above all as a sculptor, this exhibition now concentrates on his graphic work. The occasion for this retrospective exhibition is the publication of Uhlmann’s prison diaries, which are both an intimate document of the agonizing experience of his incarceration and a central aspect of his artistic evolution.

Wolf Vostell, Shoah 1492–1945, 1997, Acryl und Beton auf Holz / Acrylic and concrete on panel, 270 x 660 cm. THE WOLF VOSTELL ESTATE. © 2022 VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

Two artists, one theme – when Wolf Vostell (1932– 1998) and Boris Lurie (1924- 2008) met in the 1960s, they soon shared more than a deeply felt friendship. Both adopted political positions with their art, both conten- ded with the reappraisal of the inconceivable horrors of the Holocaust…

Upcoming tour in English language:

October 30
Tour with Karen Michelsen Castañón (artist and art mediator)