Hamburger Bahnhof Reopens on 14 June 2020 – Additional Reopenings Planned For June

04.06.2020
Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart

On Sunday, 14 June 2020, Hamburger Bahnhof – Museum für Gegenwart – Berlin is reopening following a three-month closure brought about by the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to the new solo exhibition Katharina Grosse: It Wasn’t Us, previously opened special exhibitions, the Beuys Wing, and selected sections of the Rieckhallen will also be accessible. Visitors are obliged to wear a mask/nose and mouth covering. Visits to the museum are only permitted with a time-slot ticket that can be purchased online in advance: www.smb.museum/tickets

‟Now that more than 32,000 Berliners have visited the museums we reopened on 12 May 2020, we are pleased to be add Hamburger Bahnhof to the list of venues accessible to the public,” commented Michael Eissenhauer, director-general of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. ‟The reopening of other museums and libraries in June is currently being planned and announcements will follow soon.”

‟We are looking forward to welcoming visitors back to Hamburger Bahnhof”, remarked Udo Kittelmann, director of the Nationalgalerie. ‟Despite the three-month interruption, original exhibition plans for this year could still be maintained and none of the scheduled exhibitions had to be cancelled thanks to a joint effort.”

Katharina Grosse: It Wasn’t Us

14 June 2020 – 10 January 2021

In her solo exhibition Katharina Grosse has transformed the historical hall and the outdoor area behind Hamburger Bahnhof into an expansive visual image. As a pictorial ground for her work the artist has used the floor of the hall along with Styrofoam elements she designed for the exhibition, shaping and scaling them to their ultimate dimensions in several work stages. In addition, her painting stretches beyond the building proper and into public space, to the extensive grounds behind the museum and onto the façade of the Rieckhallen galleries. In this kaleidoscopic world of images, the colours and forms created by the artist, the museum surroundings and visitors interact within an all-encompassing, pulsating display of colour that makes us review our habits of seeing, thinking and perceiving. The expansive painting unfolds its own logic, defying established juxtapositions and radically destabilising the existing order of museum space. Hatje Cantz Verlag has published the catalogue accompanying the exhibition. The exhibition is made possible by the Freunde der Nationalgalerie and Volkswagen.

To Whom It May Concern: Gift of Paul Maenz

On view until 5 July 2020

Paul Maenz has recently given three important works of contemporary art to the Nationalgalerie. In honour of the Berlin collector’s 80th birthday, these works are being publicly exhibited for the first time, together with his earlier gifts, in To Whom It May Concern. The exhibition brings together various approaches in conceptual art ranging from subjective and expressive painting to photographic installations by Walter Dahn and Jiří Georg Dokoupil, Hans-Peter Feldmann, Joseph Kosuth and Sturtevant.

Time for Fragments: Works from the Marx Collection and the Nationalgalerie Collection

On view until 4 October 2020

“It is a time for fragments”, remarked the artist Marcel Duchamp to the author Anaïs Nin while she was visiting him in his Paris studio in 1934. In a world whose unity and totality was cast in doubt both by physics and societal upheavals, Duchamp felt that the fragment was the only viable form of artistic action. This collection presentation looks into the diverse meanings of the fragmentary in the works of artists such as Marianna Castillo Deball, Anish Kapoor, William Kentridge, Cy Twombly, and Andy Warhol. It also includes a group of works by Joseph Beuys in the Beuys Wing at Hamburger Bahnhof.

Other Exhibitions

Highlights from the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection, including works by Wolfgang Tillmans and Isa Genzken, Dan Graham, Donald Judd and Bruce Nauman, are on view in selected areas of the Rieckhallen. Other sections of the Rieckhallen currently feature the special exhibition Magical Soup. Media Art from the Nationalgalerie Collection, the Friedrich Christian Flick Collection and Loans, a show whose start in April had to be postponed due to the museum closing imposed by the coronavirus. It will now be on view from 6 September 2020 ‒ 3 January 2021. The special exhibition Michael Schmidt – Retrospective. Photographs, 1965 – 2014, originally planned for May, will be shown from 23 August 2020 ‒ 17 January 2021.

Hamburger Bahnhof (Invalidenstraße 50/51, 10557 Berlin) is open as of 14 June 2020 with Special Opening Hours: Tuesday ‒ Friday, 10 am ‒ 6 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11 am ‒ 6 pm. Tickets: 10 €, reduced 5 €. Visits are only possible with a time-slot ticket. To avoid forming lines on site, we recommend you purchase your tickets in advance online: www.smb.museum/tickets.

Children and teens under 18, persons accompanying severely disabled individuals, holders of annual passes, press, ICOM or DMB IDs, as well as members of the Friends or Supporter Associations of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin are requested to reserve a gratis time-slot online or at the ticket counter and to present corresponding ID upon admission without being asked.

The number of visitors is limited and determined by the space available. All visitors aged 6+ are obliged to wear a mask/nose and mouth covering, to maintain a distance of at least 1.5 metres from other people, to follow signs and the designated courses through all exhibition spaces and to avoid forming groups inside the buildings. Special events and guided tours are not taking place until further notice. The shop at Hamburger Bahnhof is open Tuesday ‒ Sunday, 12 noon ‒ 6 pm. The restaurant at Hamburger Bahnhof is open Tuesday ‒ Friday, 10 am ‒ 6 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11 am ‒ 6 pm.

The following Staatliche Museen zu Berlin venues have reopened since 12 May 2020: On the Museumsinsel Berlin (Museum Island): the Altes Museum, the Alte Nationalgalerie and Pergamonmuseum: The Panorama, open Tuesday ‒ Sunday, 10 am ‒ 6 pm. At the Kulturforum the Gemäldegalerie and the special exhibition Pop on Paper: From Warhol to Lichtenstein, are open Tuesday ‒ Friday, 10 am ‒ 6 pm, and Saturday and Sunday, 11 am ‒ 6 pm.

Further reopenings will be announced soon.