18.11.2023
to
25.04.2027
Neue Nationalgalerie
The art of the second half of the twentieth century is marked by an enormous diversity of materials, mediums, and methods. At the same time, hardly another era was so characterized by division, rupture, and transformation as the period after the Second World War. In light of this, the Neue Nationalgalerie has chosen the title Extreme Tension for the upcoming presentation of its postwar collection.
Holocaust and war, upheaval and emancipation, Cold War and the fall of the Berlin Wall all led not only to tensions within society, but also to a fundamental realignment in visual art. The Neue Nationalgalerie will take as its point of departure the radical performance Zerreißprobe (Stress Test, 1970) by Günter Brus, who was a co-founder of the Vienna Actionism and used this performance to push his own body to the limit. The exhibition will address central artistic and social themes of the twentieth century in 14 sections, including realism and abstraction, politics and society, the everyday and Pop, feminism, identity, and nature and ecology.
The presentation will encompass key works from West and East Germany, Western Europe and the USA, and former Socialist countries. The works on display will come from the art informel movement and US-American color field painting, Pop art and Minimalism, as well as the conceptual art of artists like Marina Abramovich, Joseph Beuys, Francis Bacon, Lee Bontecou, Rebecca Horn, Valie Export, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Louise Nevelson, Bridget Riley, Pipilotti Rist, and Willi Sitte. The collection will be supplemented by a number of works and artists, such as Kiki Kogelnik and Ewa Partum, not yet represented in the collection.
In the collection presentation Extreme Tension, a complete room is dedicated to Christoph Schlingensief's project “Deutschlandsuche '99” since May 2025.
From 11 June 2025, the Christo and Jeanne-Claude’s Wrapped VW Beetle will be part of the collection presentation as a long-term loan.
An exhibition catalogue featuring many illustrations has been published (hardcover, 304 pages, 210 coloured Illustrations, €36).
An artistic experimental audio walk guides visitors intuitively through the exhibition and discusses artists, moments from Germany’s past and social discourses. It is available as free download or on rental devices in the museum.
The exhibition is curated by Joachim Jäger, Maike Steinkamp (both Neue Nationalgalerie) and Marta Smolińska (Magdalena Abakanowicz University of Art Poznań)
Media partners: Der Tagesspiegel, Exberliner, monopol and tipBerlin
A special exhibition by the Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
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| Monday | 10 am to 6 pm |
| Tuesday | 10 am to 6 pm |
| Wednesday | 10 am to 6 pm |
| Thursday | 10 am to 8 pm |
| Friday | 10 am to 6 pm |
| Saturday | 10 am to 6 pm |
| Sunday | 10 am to 6 pm |
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14,00 EUR Concessions 7,00
Extreme Tension /
Gerhard Richter
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Potsdamer Straße 50
10785 Berlin
U-Bahn: Potsdamer Platz
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Bus: Potsdamer Brücke, Potsdamer Platz Bhf / Voßstraße, Kulturforum, Philharmonie
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