On the occasion of the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich (1774 Greifswald–1840 Dresden), the Hamburger Kunsthalle is presenting the anniversary exhibition CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH from December 15, 2023 to April 1, 2024. Art for a new time . It offers the most comprehensive exhibition of the important Romantic painter's work in many years. The focus of the exhibition is a thematic retrospective with over 60 paintings - including numerous iconic key works - and around 100 drawings. In addition, selected works by Friedrich's artist friends will be presented, including Carl Blechen, Carl Gustav Carus, Johan Christian Dahl, August Heinrich and Georg Friedrich Kersting. The central theme is the novel relationship between people and nature in Friedrich's landscape depictions. In the first third of the 19th century he provided significant impulses to make the landscape genre “art for a new time”. The enduring high level of fascination that his works trigger and the special connection to contemporary issues are demonstrated in a second independent part of the exhibition, which is dedicated to Friedrich's reception in contemporary art. Across genres and media, around 20 artists from home and abroad focus on Romanticism, their understanding of nature and Friedrich's art with their works, including videos, photographs and installations. On display are works by Elina Brotherus, Julian Charrière, David Claerbout, Olafur Eliasson, Alex Grein, Hiroyuki Masuyama, Mariele Neudecker, Ulrike Rosenbach, Susan Schuppli, Santeri Tuori and Kehinde Wiley, among others.
High-quality and extremely rare Friedrich loans such as the paintings Chalk Cliffs on Rügen (1818), The Monk by the Sea (1808–10) and Two Men Contemplating the Moon (1819/20) are in the exhibition alongside the pictures Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (around 1817) and The Sea of Ice (1823/24) from the collection of the Hamburger Kunsthalle can be experienced. These works are among the icons of Romanticism. Friedrich painterly explored the ways in which landscape can become a contemporary theme, the potential associated with the reproduction of natural spaces and how this can be conveyed to the viewer. But Friedrich's extensive graphic oeuvre also plays a special role in the show. The conscious stay in the great outdoors with artistic intention is one of the special characteristics of romantic art practice and was essential for Friedrich.
The unique mood expressed in Friedrich's works as well as their memorable motifs and composition have encouraged a large number of artists to enter into dialogue with the romantic - especially against the background of current ecological issues. The tension between advancing environmental destruction and a longing for “untouched nature” forms a continuity from Romanticism to today. However, while the romantic understanding of nature was national in nature during Frederick's lifetime, artists today approach nature and climate change from a global perspective. In this sense, the exhibition also shows current works that are dedicated to the dark sides and voids of Romanticism and its reception. Colonialism and its effects on people and nature are taken into account, as is a Western hegemonic concept of nature and its manifestations in art. The exhibits include, among other things, large-format Friedrich adaptations by the US artist Kehinde Wiley (*1977), which critically reflect the Western, white-dominated art canon
The exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle marks the start of the Caspar David Friedrich Festival . To mark the anniversary year, the Alte Nationalgalerie of the State Museums in Berlin and the Dresden State Art Collections are also devoting a thematically independent show to the artist. The three houses have the most important holdings of Friedrich's works in the world. With extensive mutual loans, they enable unique presentations on different aspects of his work. The anniversary exhibitions marking the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich are under the patronage of Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.
