World Receiver

Ten years ago, the Hamburger Kunsthalle opened the Galerie der Gegenwart. The white cube of the museum building, designed by Oswald Mathias Ungers, is a striking architectural feature situated between the Inner and Outer Alster lakes and has already become one of the landmarks of the Hanseatic City of Hamburg.

The Galerie der Gegenwart houses a collection of international contemporary art from the period since 1960 – from Art Informel to the so-called “Spurensicherer” (securers of evidence), from Pop Art to the new wave of internationally acclaimed German painters. While the inaugural exhibition in 1997 was enhanced by works on loan from private collections, a major focus of our activities since then has been the expansion of the museum collection.

Now, after ten years of commitment to this task, we are delighted to be able to spotlight our own collection in the exhibition World Receiver. In the basement floor of the building, major groups of works by artists such as Andy Warhol, Gerhard Richter, Sigmar Polke, Joseph Beuys, Hanne Darboven, Georg Baselitz and Felix Droese are shown alongside significant pieces by KP Brehmer, Arthur Köpcke, Anna and Bernhard Blume, Dennis Oppenheim and Allan Kaprow.

Inside the cube, works by artists of different generations are loosely grouped around thematic concerns: “traces and archives”, “the body and identity”, “modelmakers” or “storytellers”. The third floor of the building is devoted to the juxtaposition of painterly approaches since 1960 - varying between fiery gestural forms and cool reduction.

The main emphasis of t0his collection display is on works that have been acquired over the last few years, many of which are being shown here for the first time: these include a large installation by Wolfgang Tillmans, paintings by Stefan Thater and Julia Oschatz, photographs by Sarah Schoenfeld and Zwelethu Mthethwa as well as drawings by Marc Brandenburg, Dasha Shishkin and many more. At the same time, some of the more familiar names – such as Nan Goldin, Bruce Nauman, Andreas Gursky, Shirin Neshat, Jeff Wall, Mona Hatoum and Anna Oppermann – can be rediscovered here in a completely new context.

Over the last ten years, many good friends have helped to extend the scope of the collection and to establish new groups: particularly the “Stiftung für die Hamburger Kunstsammlungen”, which bought more than 30 works of Contemporary Art, and the “Freunde der Kunsthalle”. With their generous support and the help of private individuals from Hamburg, friends of the museum, foundations and sponsors, the Galerie der Gegenwart has grown steadily as an institution dedicated to the collection and exhibition of contemporary art and has already gained a strong international profile.

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