Potsdam Museum: One Collection – Many Perspectives. Art in dialogue from 1900 to today | 23.04.-02.10.2022

Is your favourite work included? Last year, anyone interested in art could participate online in our project “Demokuratie”. Numerous citizens from Potsdam and beyond voted for a work of art from a selection of the municipal art collection and told us why this particular work should be shown.

Image above: Werner Gottsmann, Potsdamer Stadtlandschaft, 1975 (Ausschnitt) © Potsdam-Museum – Forum für Kunst und Geschichte, VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2022, Foto: Michael Lüder

The votes flowed into the exhibition “One Collection – Many Perspectives”, which with 59 works covers a broad spectrum of artistic signatures and thematic diversity within our collection. On display are paintings, graphics and drawings from 1900 to the present, works that have already been shown, but also rediscovered treasures and new acquisitions from recent years that have not yet been presented.

The exhibition is thematically divided into five thematic rooms, with the city of Potsdam, which inspired the artists* time and again, as the opening section of the exhibition, garnering the most participant votes. The result is individual, pictorial urban narratives that process change, historical Potsdam and current urban planning debates. In addition, the Potsdam Museum’s new special exhibition presents four other exciting themes that show how broad and diverse the collecting passion of the municipal museum and its citizens is. These include the image of man in different times, which oscillates between naturalism and realism.

Another important spectrum of the collection is formed by the landscape and nature depictions, which – how could it be otherwise in the water-rich surroundings of Potsdam – artistically visualise above all Havel landscapes, lakes, rivers and canals. The poetic landscape painting flows smoothly into the abstract works. Form, colour and composition take on a greater autonomy in the departure from reality.

The abstract tendencies in the exhibition are presented sensitively and sensually, but sometimes also wildly and expressively. The last subject awaiting the visitor is interior scenes in painting and graphic art, which deal with private and public life.

The heart of this exhibition consists of the voices of the people who, through their statements, advocate a special, individual view of the artworks and of Potsdam. The diversity of perspectives will also run through the exhibition and once again we will ask you: Which picture fascinates you the most and why?

Dr Jutta Götzmann, director of the Potsdam Museum and exhibition curator, was particularly keen to work with schools: “The exhibition is defined by the intensive joint process of preparation. Pupils from the Hannah-Arendt-Gymnasium in Potsdam and the Leonardo da Vinci Campus in Nauen came up with some amazing ideas. Their contributions, including a film project with the actors, can be seen in two exhibition rooms.”

The idea of co-determination is also taken up with other exhibition elements. For example, a wall design at the exit invites visitors to “re-curate”, children can engage with a central exhibit by doing a puzzle, and visitors are asked: Which picture fascinates you the most and why?

You can look forward to seeing these artists in the exhibition:

Wolfram Baumgardt, Ilse Fischer, Philipp Franck, Werner Gottsmann, Karl Hagemeister, Otto Heinrich, Christian Heinze, Martin Hoffmann, Otto Hundt, Hans Klohss, Max Koch, Ernst Ludwig Kretschmann, Paul Kuhfuß, Magda Langenstraß-Uhlig, Wolfgang Liebert, Harald Metzkes, Achim Mogge, Christa Panzner, Peter Panzner, Uwe Pfeifer, Stefan Plenkers, Curt Querner, Barbara Raetsch, Karl Raetsch, Susanne Ramolla, Kurt Robbel, Peter Rohn, Squaw Hildegard Rose, Gertrude Sandmann, Joachim Scheel, Scheiner, Alfred Schmidt, Hannah Schreiber de Grahl, Siegward Sprotte, Wolfgang Thiel, Unbekannter Künstler, Stephan Velten, Ulla Walter, Wolfgang Wegener, Anna Werkmeister

WHEN?

Exhibition dates: Saturday, 23. April 2022 – 12:00 until Sunday, 2. October 2022 – 18:00

WHERE?

Potsdam Museum
Am Alten Markt 9
Potsdam 14467