From January 24, 2025, the Berlin Gemäldegalerie will be presenting 60 works by European painters from the 16th to 19th centuries from the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art. The paintings are among the highlights of the collection and were brought to safety from the war in the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa (Ukrainian spelling). In the exhibition, they enter into a dialog with paintings from the Berlin collections. The German-Ukrainian cooperation project is funded by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media and is an expression of the close cultural relations between Germany and Ukraine.
Image above: Emile Claus, Sonniger Tag, 1895, Öl auf Leinwand, 65,5 x 81,6 cm, Odesa Museum für Westliche und Östliche Kunst, Inv.Nr. ??-123, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin / Eigentum des Museums für Westliche und Östliche Kunst Odesa / Christoph Schmidt
The Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art
Founded in 1923 and opened in 1924, the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art is located in the middle of the endangered historic old town of the southern Ukrainian port city of Odesa.
It houses a broad-based art and cultural history collection. European paintings, sculptures, prints and applied art from the Renaissance to the 20th century form an important focus.
A German-Ukrainian cooperation project
Shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression on February 24, 2022, the most important paintings in the Odesa Museum were moved to an emergency storage facility in Ukraine to protect them. These are works by European painters from the 15th to 20th centuries, including paintings by important artists such as Andreas Achenbach, Francesco Granacci, Frans Hals, Cornelis de Heem, Roelant Savery, Bernardo Strozzi, Alessandro Magnasco and Frits Thaulow. As there are close links with the painting collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Odesa Museum, the Berlin Gemäldegalerie and the Alte Nationalgalerie have initiated a cooperation project with the aim of organizing a major special exhibition.
In September 2023, 74 works from Ukraine were brought to Berlin. They were conserved by two restorers in the Gemäldegalerie and thus prepared for the exhibition. As most of the paintings had been evacuated without frames in Ukraine, they were given specially made new frames in Berlin. Two depictions of evangelists by Frans Hals arrived in Berlin in May 2024. They had been loaned to Vilnius at the beginning of the war and became part of the Berlin Frans Hals exhibition at the Gemäldegalerie.
The exhibition
The special exhibition in the Wandelhalle of the Gemäldegalerie brings 60 major works from the Odesa Museum into an exciting dialog with 25 works from the Berlin painting collections. Many paintings from Odesa were created by masters who were also collected in Berlin, while others are linked to works from Berlin by their subject matter.
Östliche Kunst Odesa / Christoph Schmidt
The focused juxtapositions create surprising “encounters” that provide revealing insights into art and cultural-historical contexts. Last but not least, the show tells of the cultural identity of Ukraine.
Facets of art history
The exhibition is divided into nine chapters and begins with an introduction to the project and its historical context. The following chapters, which are based on the genres of European painting, among other things, reflect the multifaceted nature of the Ukrainian collection, which has been little known in Western Europe to date. Never before has such a large number of paintings from the Odesa Museum been presented in Germany. The collection focuses on Italian works from the 17th and 18th centuries and Dutch paintings from the 17th century.
Highlights include the graceful Renaissance Madonna by Francesco Granacci, the impressive Ecce Homo by Bernardo Strozzi, the miniature depiction of paradise by Roelant Savery, the colorful still life with lobster by Cornelis de Heem and the impressionistic Sunny Day by Emile Claus. They are accompanied by works by these artists from the Gemäldegalerie and the Alte Nationalgalerie. Berlin paintings by Abraham Bloemaert, Jan Fyt, Anton Graff, Gabriel von Max, Marco Ricci and Joachim Wtewael, among others, are also represented as dialog partners to works from Odesa.
Solidarity with Ukraine
The exhibition presents works from the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art to a wide audience and highlights Ukraine’s links with Western Europe. The cooperation project emphasizes that the acutely endangered museums in Ukraine and their collections are both part of European culture and part of Ukrainian identity. This cultural identity must be preserved.
The exhibition aims to send a signal of solidarity with Ukraine; Ukrainians can enter the exhibition free of charge on presentation of a passport or ID. Ukrainian names such as “Odesa” are spelled in the exhibition and in the catalog in a spelling based on Ukrainian. All texts in the exhibition and catalog are published in Ukrainian as well as English and German.
WHEN?
Opening: Thursday, 23. January 2025, 7 pm
Exhibition period: Friday, 24. January until Sunday, 22. June 2025
Openong hours: Tue – Sun: 10 am – 6 pm
WHERE?
Kulturforum, Gemäldegalerie
Matthäikirchplatz,
10785 Berlin
