Revival of an exhibition series from the 1970s

How has our view of centuries-old art changed? What does that say about our society in the 21st century? The Hamburger Kunsthalle is opening an exhibition about exhibitions: From 1974 to 1981, the museum presented a series of exhibitions on art around 1800. The series revised narratives of European art history by focusing on themes and artists who broke with the conventions of their time: Caspar David Friedrich, Johann Heinrich Füssli, William Blake, Johan Tobias Sergel, William Turner, Philipp Otto Runge, John Flaxman, and Francisco Goya. The exhibition ART AROUND 1800 will comment on and update the historical displays, which were created under the direction of then-director Werner Hofmann, from a contemporary perspective. New scientific findings reveal new aspects of art around 1800 and emphasize themes that were neglected in the 1970s, such as feminism, Jewish culture, and people of color. ART AROUND 1800 runs from December 5, 2025, to March 29, 2026.

Over 50 paintings, books, and graphic works from the Kunsthalle collection transport visitors to the distant past and correct mid-20th-century perspectives on this period. In three sections, ART AROUND 1800 will examine themes such as dreams, political landscapes, and revolutionary energies from the present day. The exhibition venue is the same: the domed hall on the upper floor of the annex and extension, which was inaugurated in 1919. It was used as a curatorial experimental space in the 1970s.

Guest curators of the current exhibition are Prof. Dr. Petra Lange-Berndt from the University of Hamburg and Prof. Dr. Dietmar Rübel from the Academy of Fine Arts in Munich.