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1 October 2008

Cult of the Artist

The artist is the core mythical figure of the Western world. For thousands of years now he has come to be worshiped in many guises: as Prometheus, prophet, genius or superman. No other cult figure reveals the history of the European spirit with such force as a drama centering on the eternal conflict between reality and madness, heaven and hell, fate and free will.

In 2008, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin (National Museums in Berlin) will be making this cult of the artist their major theme for the year. The primary location for the exhibition series will be the National Gallery, which was founded in 1876 as a national place of worship to honour the masters of international contemporary art. In autumn 2008, the gallery will take centre stage for the great 'ring' of cult artists; the Old National Gallery - unsurpassed temple of the arts - will transform itself into a Walhalla of the German artistic myths of the 19th century. With its exhibitions 'The Klee Universe' and 'Jeff Koons' Celebration', the New National Gallery will be celebrating the apotheosis of the artist in the 20th century, positing him between the metaphysical and pop. Meanwhile the Hamburger Bahnhof will be putting the spotlight on the two most important prophetical artists of the recent past, Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys, but not without offering a space to the deconstruction of the myth of the artist by showcasing such figures as Martin Kippenberger and co.

The intellectual heart of the exhibition series will be 'Immortal! The Cult of the Artist' in the exhibition halls at Kulturforum Potsdamer Platz, from where we will be given the chance to take a sweeping look at the role of the artist in all cultures and across all epochs. The exhibition will pay equal attention to images of the artist from outside Europe as well as to European myths of the artist - from the declaration of the artist as an organon of god in the Middle Ages right up to the cult of genius and the readiness in the 20th and 21th centuries to perceive the artist with the same aura as a prophet and messiah.

In the Egyptian Museum on the Museum Island this journey through the ages reaches far beyond the confines of the history of Western culture and stretches as far back to the birth of the cult of the artist in the workshops of Thutmosis, creator of Nefertiti, who we shall be honouring as Berlin's still most beautiful woman. In the special exhibition 'Giacometti, the Egyptian' the distant past and present day are brought together in timeless proximity to each other, thus closing our ring of cult artists, for whom, with a total of ten exhibitions, the National Museums in Berlin are preparing a grand stage in the autumn of 2008.

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