New Berlin Museum for Postwar Art to Open in 2015

The exterior of the Kunsthaus Dahlem, Berlin Photo: Robert Conrad via Achim Klapp Medienberatung

A new exhibition space for postwar art and known as the Kunsthaus Dahlem is due to open in Berlin in summer 2015, according to an announcement on Monday.

The museum will be located in a building with a rich history. It was originally the studio of Arno Breker, one of the most prominent Nazi-era sculptors. After World War II, the building was used by the occupying American forces as the headquarters of the Information Control Division (ICD) which, among other missions aimed at bringing Germany back into step with the international community, was responsible for controlling and licensing cultural institutions’ publishing activities.

Sponsored by the Bernhard Heiliger Foundation and supported by Berlin’s Mayor and the city’s Senate Chancellery of Cultural Affairs, the museum will present exhibitions on postwar German art from 1945 to 1961. A permanent exhibition housed in the museum’s foyer will also provide insight into the building’s history between 1939 and 1945. Berlin-based architects Petra and Paul Kahlfeldt have been tasked with the redevelopment of the building.

After opening, a two month period featuring a series of talks, special events, and other programs will be followed by an inaugural exhibition curated by the chief curator and director of Kunsthaus Dahlem, Dorothea Schöne. The exhibition will focus on sculpture that challenges the traditional heritage of modern art. It will feature works loaned from various Berlin-based collections. The show will explore how overlapping common ground found between East and West German art forged contemporary Germany’s common identity.


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