Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age in Hamburg
February 5 2024
Video: Hamburger Kunsthalle
Posted by Adam Busiakiewicz:
The Hamburger Kunsthalle opened a new exhibition dedicated to Caspar David Friedrich at the end of last year. Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age not only features a large selection of the artist's works, but include a showcase of contemporary art in response to his art.
According to the museum's website:
To mark what would have been the 250th birthday of Caspar David Friedrich (b. 1774 Greifswald – d. 1840 Dresden), the Hamburger Kunsthalle is presenting the anniversary exhibition 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.
The exhibition will run until 1st April 2024.