Institution

Since 1817, the Kunstverein in Hamburg has been dedicated to the presentation and promotion of young, artistic positions of their time and serves as a platform for constructive debate on new directions in art.

Since 1817, the Kunstverein in Hamburg has been dedicated to presenting and communicating young, artistic positions of their time and serving as a platform for constructive debate about new directions in art.

The Kunstverein was founded at a time when a self-confident middle class was becoming more and more involved in society. In 1817, a group of Hamburg citizens came together to meet regularly, initially in private rooms, to view and discuss works of art together. Among the founding members were well-known Hamburg citizens such as Karl Sieveking, Nicolaus Hudtwalcker and Alexis de Chateauneuf. Soon the theoretical discussion was complemented by exhibitions. Caspar David Friedrich, Phillip Otto Runge or Arnold Böcklin were thus shown early in the Kunstverein. The Kunstverein is not only the city's oldest art institution, but its members were also instrumental in founding the Hamburg Kunsthalle in the 19th century. The foundation of the Kunsthalle's collection also consisted largely of the Kunstverein's holdings, which were acquired by members of the association and supplemented by donations and bequests until the beginning of the 20th century.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the exhibition profile of the Kunstverein in Hamburg sharpened. Instead of small-scale survey exhibitions, thematic individual and group shows came to the fore. The main focus was on the Hamburg Secession and the avant-garde tendencies of the time, such as Expressionism, Cubism and Russian Constructivism. The further history of the Kunstverein in Hamburg is a reflection of the social changes in Germany: banned under the National Socialists, efforts were made to rehabilitate modernism after 1945. Now international artists such as Jackson Pollock or Francis Bacon celebrated their exhibition premieres here. At the time of the 1968 movement, social issues were the focus of artistic debate, and with them the conceptual art of Joseph Beuys, Blinky Palermo, Dieter Roth and Hanne Darboven. From the 1980s on, the Kunstverein developed as a place where social, cultural and political debates were not only conducted through art, but also initiated. Philippe Parreno, Pierre Huyghe, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Liam Gillick continued this tradition in the 1990s with groundbreaking projects.

The Kunstverein in Hamburg has always been committed to promoting those artists who are producing today and helping to shape the cultural heritage of the future. The program is oriented towards international developments in contemporary art and is committed to the promotion and presentation of high-quality artistic experiments that, accompanied by discourse, continue to drive the development of contemporary exhibition.

As a place of artistic production, exhibition making, art mediation and critical discourse, the association is dedicated to artists who show us new ways of looking at social issues. They take on the task of showing us the way out of the familiar, perhaps formulating the way to a different way of living together, in order to develop a language that helps overcome economic and political differences.

At the beginning of the 20th century, the exhibition profile of the Kunstverein in Hamburg sharpened. Instead of small-scale survey exhibitions, thematic individual and group shows came to the fore. The main focus was on the Hamburg Secession and the avant-garde tendencies of the time, such as Expressionism, Cubism and Russian Constructivism. The further history of the Kunstverein in Hamburg is a reflection of the social changes in Germany: banned under the National Socialists, efforts were made to rehabilitate modernism after 1945. Now international artists such as Jackson Pollock or Francis Bacon celebrated their exhibition premieres here. At the time of the 1968 movement, social issues were the focus of artistic debate, and with them the conceptual art of Joseph Beuys, Blinky Palermo, Dieter Roth and Hanne Darboven. From the 1980s on, the Kunstverein developed as a place where social, cultural and political debates were not only conducted through art, but also initiated. Philippe Parreno, Pierre Huyghe, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster and Liam Gillick continued this tradition in the 1990s with groundbreaking projects.

The Kunstverein in Hamburg has always been committed to promoting those artists who are producing today and helping to shape the cultural heritage of the future. The program is oriented towards international developments in contemporary art and is committed to the promotion and presentation of high-quality artistic experiments that, accompanied by discourse, continue to drive the development of contemporary exhibition.

As a place of artistic production, exhibition making, art mediation and critical discourse, the association is dedicated to artists who show us new ways of looking at social issues. They take on the task of showing us the way out of the familiar, perhaps formulating the way to a different way of living together, in order to develop a language that helps overcome economic and political differences.

As a place of artistic production, exhibition making, art mediation and critical discourse, the association is dedicated to artists who show us new ways of looking at social issues. They set themselves the task of showing us the way out of the familiar, perhaps formulating the way to a different way of living together, in order to develop a language that helps overcome economic and political differences.