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Art, Seen
Contemporary Photography and the Old Masters
Catherine Opie, Dyke, 1993 / Hans Holbein d.J., Hermann Hillebrandt de Wedigh, 1533
© Fotonachweise: © Catherine Opie, Courtesy Regen Projects, Los Angeles; Lehmann Maupin, New York, Hong Kong, London, and Seoul; Thomas Dane Gallery / Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie / Jörg P. Anders
How does contemporary photography change the way we view paintings by the Old Masters? The Gemäldegalerie explores this question in its exhibition Art, Seen and demonstrates just how vibrant and fruitful the dialogue between the two art forms remains to this day.
Seeing the Old Masters with Fresh Eyes
The special exhibition will bring together around 90 international photographic works and selected masterpieces from the Gemäldegalerie, which houses one of the world’s most significant collections of Pre-Modern paintings. Works by artists such as Thomas Struth, Cindy Sherman, Martin Parr, Jeff Wall, Candida Höfer and Carrie Mae Weems engage with the Old Masters through homage, reinterpretation or reflection, offering surprising new perspectives on familiar paintings.
Spanning six thematic sections, the exhibition will explore the various ways in which contemporary artists engage with and interpret historical images. It will address questions of appropriation, staging, transformation, materiality, perception, and the circulation of digital images.
Appropriating, Reflecting, Retelling
For many of the featured photographers, the works of the Old Masters are much more than just an art historical legacy. They serve as a source of inspiration for new artistic creations, commentary on social issues, as well as formal and aesthetic experimentation.
Jeff Wall, for instance, transforms the contemplative stillness of a Chardin painting into a contemporary artist’s portrait. Meanwhile, Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie and Maud Sulter draw on historical portrait traditions to renegotiate issues of gender, identity and cultural belonging. Tom Hunter transposes pictorial compositions from Pre-Modern paintings to Berlin-Friedrichshain, highlighting the impact of gentrification.
Other artists focus on the material qualities of paintings: Ola Kolehmainen, for instance, enlarges the craquelure in a portrait of a woman by Petrus Christus to monumental proportions, thereby transforming the traces of time and ageing into a visual motif.
Another key theme is the museum as a place in its own right. Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth present museums as spaces for contemplation and staging, whereas Louise Lawler questions the mechanisms by which institutions produce meaning. Meanwhile, Carrie Mae Weems addresses issues of access, representation and exclusion in her series Museums, calling attention to which perspectives and stories are presented in a museum and which are marginalised. Bettina von Zwehl and Miguel Calderón, in turn, shine a spotlight on the people who work among masterpieces every day, yet who usually remain invisible.
The Museum in the Digital Age
At the same time, the exhibition explores how seeing has changed in the digital age. Visitors themselves become part of the museum’s staging through their smartphones, and social media plays a role in determining which artworks gain visibility. The collections of Pre-Modern paintings are not only sites of art history, but also visual spaces of the present.
Art, Seen brings together loans from major international museums, galleries and private collections.
Education and Outreach Programme
An extensive education and outreach programme invites visitors of all ages to rediscover their own perspective on the Old Masters.
Exhibition Catalogue
A richly illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
Curatorial Team
The exhibition is curated by Katja Kleinert, curator of 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Painting, and Erik Eising, assistant curator at the Gemäldegalerie.
A special exhibition of the Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Seeing the Old Masters with Fresh Eyes
The special exhibition will bring together around 90 international photographic works and selected masterpieces from the Gemäldegalerie, which houses one of the world’s most significant collections of Pre-Modern paintings. Works by artists such as Thomas Struth, Cindy Sherman, Martin Parr, Jeff Wall, Candida Höfer and Carrie Mae Weems engage with the Old Masters through homage, reinterpretation or reflection, offering surprising new perspectives on familiar paintings.
Spanning six thematic sections, the exhibition will explore the various ways in which contemporary artists engage with and interpret historical images. It will address questions of appropriation, staging, transformation, materiality, perception, and the circulation of digital images.
Appropriating, Reflecting, Retelling
For many of the featured photographers, the works of the Old Masters are much more than just an art historical legacy. They serve as a source of inspiration for new artistic creations, commentary on social issues, as well as formal and aesthetic experimentation.
Jeff Wall, for instance, transforms the contemplative stillness of a Chardin painting into a contemporary artist’s portrait. Meanwhile, Cindy Sherman, Catherine Opie and Maud Sulter draw on historical portrait traditions to renegotiate issues of gender, identity and cultural belonging. Tom Hunter transposes pictorial compositions from Pre-Modern paintings to Berlin-Friedrichshain, highlighting the impact of gentrification.
Other artists focus on the material qualities of paintings: Ola Kolehmainen, for instance, enlarges the craquelure in a portrait of a woman by Petrus Christus to monumental proportions, thereby transforming the traces of time and ageing into a visual motif.
Another key theme is the museum as a place in its own right. Candida Höfer and Thomas Struth present museums as spaces for contemplation and staging, whereas Louise Lawler questions the mechanisms by which institutions produce meaning. Meanwhile, Carrie Mae Weems addresses issues of access, representation and exclusion in her series Museums, calling attention to which perspectives and stories are presented in a museum and which are marginalised. Bettina von Zwehl and Miguel Calderón, in turn, shine a spotlight on the people who work among masterpieces every day, yet who usually remain invisible.
The Museum in the Digital Age
At the same time, the exhibition explores how seeing has changed in the digital age. Visitors themselves become part of the museum’s staging through their smartphones, and social media plays a role in determining which artworks gain visibility. The collections of Pre-Modern paintings are not only sites of art history, but also visual spaces of the present.
Art, Seen brings together loans from major international museums, galleries and private collections.
Education and Outreach Programme
An extensive education and outreach programme invites visitors of all ages to rediscover their own perspective on the Old Masters.
Exhibition Catalogue
A richly illustrated catalogue will accompany the exhibition.
Curatorial Team
The exhibition is curated by Katja Kleinert, curator of 17th Century Dutch and Flemish Painting, and Erik Eising, assistant curator at the Gemäldegalerie.
A special exhibition of the Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
Runtime: Fri, 26/11/2027 to Sun, 23/04/2028
Takes place here:
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