The Must-See Berlin Museum Exhibitions of the Summer

Berlinische Galerie | © Nina Straßgütl/ Berlinische Galerie
Berlinische Galerie | © Nina Straßgütl/ Berlinische Galerie
Photo of Megan King
Megan King
22 May 2017

Summer’s here, and with it comes a fresh batch of world-class exhibition openings at some of the Berlin‘s finest museums. From photography through the ages, to feats of modern art and adventures in natural history, here are the exhibitions keeping you cool this summer in Berlin.

Enemy of the Stars

This newly opened exhibition at KW is subtitled ‘Ronald Jones in dialogue with David Hammons, Louise Lawler, Helmar Lerski and Julia Scher’. Ronald Jones gained notoriety in New York for his minimal installation work that creates a symbolic language to depict history as a medium in itself. The artist explores how history has shaped our perceptions of the world, our fears, our ideas and our hopes. The exhibition reflects and stretches Ronald Jones’ artistic life and practice.

Enemy of the Stars: Ronald Jones in dialogue with David Hammons, Louise Lawler, Helmar Lerski and Julia Scher, Installation view | © Frank Sperling/ KW Institute for Contemporary Art

Faraway Focus

Faraway Focus, Photographers Go Travelling (1880–2015) puts the focus on travel photography as visual art. With over 180 images taken by 17 photographers, including the likes of Max Baumann and Evelyn Richter, the exhibition showcases the shifts of travel photography throughout the 20th century, from early snaps taken on road trips in foreign lands right up to the globalised and intercultural world of today.

Tobias Zielony, Car Wreck from the series: Trona – Armpit of America, 2008 | © Tobias Zielony

ERA

This exhibition pays homage to the beautiful, colourful, exotic but highly endangered macaw parrots of South America. This project is running in conjunction with other German initiatives that are trying to conserve these intelligent and sociable creatures that have been drastically threatened by habitat loss caused by deforestation and increased agriculture.

Museum of National History, Invalidenstraße 43, Berlin, Germany

Hiwa K: Don’t Shrink Me to the Size of a Bullet

Artist Hiwa K presents a ten-year body of work based on his inquiry into the meaning of ‘home’. Turbulent political conditions in his own country of Iraq forced him to leave his home, a notion that he has transformed and explored through oral stories, film and conversations with his family. The artist was awarded the Schering Stiftung Art Award in 2016.

Hiwa K, Moon Calendar, Iraq, 2007, Video Still | © Hiwa K, Courtesy Hiwa K and KOW, Berlin/KW Institute for Contemporary Art

Kiss – from Rodin to Bob Dylan

June 15 October 3, 2017 at Bröhan Museum

The Bröhan Museum brings the best in Art Nouveau, Art Deco and Functionalism to Berlin, and this exhibition entitled Kiss – From Rodin to Bob Dylan is no exception. The exhibition explores this great ritual of culture though the ages, its history, context and multifaceted meanings that have developed around the action and been depicted in art over the years. Dive into the meaning of a kiss from the art and design of the 1900s to the present day.

Bröhan Museum, Schloßstraße 1a1, Berlin, Germany

Fidus, Paar im Sternenkranz, 1912, oil on canvas, archive of the German youth movement, Witzenhausen © | VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2017/ Bröhan Museum

Käthe Kollwitz and her friends

This exhibition is taking place in honour of the great German artist’s 150th birthday. Kollwitz is renowned for her depictions of the struggles of the working class she witnessed all around her in her neighbourhood of Prenzlauer Berg. Patrons, friends, colleagues and others close to the artist and her work will come to together to celebrate Kollwitz and pay tribute to the compassion and commitment she held towards others and that characterise her paintings and sculptures.

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