The Gemäldegalerie (Old Masters Picture Gallery) at the Kulturforum is once again opening its doors to an extraordinary dialogue between the past and the present. As part of Berlin Fashion Week, the Berliner Salon will showcase contemporary fashion alongside with masterpieces of European art history.

The Berlin Salon is an exhibition programme sponsored by the Berlin Senate, offering up-and-coming fashion talents an internationally visible platform This year’s group show, curated by Christiane Arp, chairwoman of the Fashion Council Germany, showcases outstanding young designers in close collaboration with the Gemäldegalerie.

Integrated into the Gemäldegalerie’s permanent exhibition, the participants’ fashion designs enter into direct dialogue with Old Master paintings within the unique art-historical reference frame provided by the museum’s outstanding collection. Historical depictions of posture, clothing and fashionable (self‑) presentation vividly illustrate how clothing has been used for centuries to express identity, social status and a consciousness of power.

By placing fashion designs in direct juxtaposition with painting, the fashion designs can be appreciated within their cultural continuum, which encompasses art, artisanship and zeitgeist. The presentation draws on a centuries-old tradition of artisanal excellence. The Old Masters were the avant-garde of their time, and their works reflect the ideas, desires and aspirations of past eras. As highlights of artistic and technical mastery, their works provide new perspectives on creative processes and their evolution up to the present day.

With the Berlin Salon, the Gemäldegalerie becomes a place of lively exchange, where historical art and contemporary fashion converse in a multilayered, sensorial dialogue – as it did with thegroup exhibition Fashion Meets Masterpieces in February 2025. From 30 January to 30 May 2026, the exhibitions Gallery Looks: Fashion Staging at the Gemäldegalerie and Fashion X Craft: Echoes of Tomorrow are also on view.

A special exhibition of the Gemäldegalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in collaboration with Nowadays and Museum & Location.