Caspar David Friedrich

Art for a New Age. At the centre of the most comprehensive show in many years devoted to the foremost artist of German Romanticism is a thematic retrospective comprising over 60 paintings, among them a number of iconic key works, as well as around 100 drawings and selected works by Friedrich’s artist friends. The main theme is the new relationship between human and nature evoked in Friedrich’s landscapes. In the first third of the nineteenth century, the artist broke new ground as he transformed the landscape genre into »art for a new age«. The enduring fascination of Friedrich’s oeuvre will be illustrated in a separate section of the exhibition that looks at his influence on contemporary art. Works by some 20 artists from Germany and abroad spanning various genres and media reveal diverse approaches to Friedrich’s central theme – how people deal with their environment. Notable here is just how topical the Romantic artist’s point of view is today in the age of climate change.

Exhibited contemporary artists: Ann Böttcher, Elina Brotherus, Julian Charrière, David Claerbout, Mari Eastman, Olafur Eliasson, Jonas Fischer, Alex Grein, Swaantje Güntzel, Jochen Hein, Nina K. Jurk, Johanna Karlsson, Hiroyuki Masuyama, Lyoudmila Milanova, Andreas Mühe, Mariele Neudecker, Ulrike Rosenbach, Susan Schuppli, Santeri Tuori and Kehinde Wiley.

The exhibition at the Hamburger Kunsthalle will mark the start of the Caspar David Friedrich Festival. To celebrate this anniversary year, the Alte Nationalgalerie in Berlin and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden will each dedicate a show to the artist, focusing on different themes. The three museums hold the world’s most important collections of Friedrich’s works. Through extensive reciprocal loans, this rich trove allows for unique presentations of different aspects of his work. The anniversary exhibitions marking the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich are taking place under the patronage of German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

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Haspa-Galerie
Hamburger Sparkasse has been committed to the Hamburger Kunsthalle for many years. As a sign of gratitude for this generous support, the 2nd upper floor of the Gallery for Contemporary Art, where the exhibition is shown, has been called »Haspa Gallery« since the end of 2019.

DESCRIPTION:
CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH - Art for a New Era | 15 Dec 2023 - 01 April 2024 | Special exhibition | Exhibition catalogue | German original
edition

A new view of nature is at the centre of Caspar David Friedrich's work. The landscape paintings and drawings by the most important artist of German Romanticism break with traditional patterns of representation. Instead, they combine an unusually precise study of nature with a thoroughgoing desire for pictorial composition. In this way, Friedrich's paintings pave a new way of thinking about the ambivalent interrelationship between man and nature. They make it possible to experience that man is part of nature and at the same time faces it with vision and reflection. The book accompanying the major Friedrich retrospective contributes to a rediscovery of his work in the face of current challenges in times of climate crisis. Friedrich's paintings can inspire us to question our view of man's relationship to nature, and his unbroken topicality is reflected not least in the reception of his works in contemporary art, which is presented in the second part of the book. A variety of new interpretations and appropriations of Friedrich's paintings and themes allow the romantic view of nature to enter into an exciting dialogue with ecological issues and contemporary perspectives on nature.

CASPAR DAVID FRIEDRICH (1774-1840) epitomises Romanticism like no other painter. Born in Greifswald, he studied at the art academy in Copenhagen and settled in Dresden in 1798. Friedrich's landscape compositions already fascinated and irritated us during his lifetime. They are firmly anchored in our visual memory and prove in many ways to be relevant to the questions and challenges of our time.

Hardcover edition | Publisher: Markus Bertsch, Johannes Grave | Hatje Cantz Verlag | Number of pages 512 | Dimensions (L/W) 29 x 23.5 cm | Language German

We would like to thank the private sponsors:

Else Schnabel, Heinz and Christine Lehmann