Art in Berlin

1880 – 1980 Permanent Exhibition

painting by Fred Thieler, Mixed Media on canvas, 160 x 315 cm

Fred Thieler, Tales for W. Turner, 1962

© VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn

The predominant colours in this abstract painting are beige, blue and black. The paint seems to have dripped onto the canvas and then run. Black patches emerge from cloud-like formations of blue and beige. Shades of blue prevail top left, black and beige in the middle and to the right, and around the edge there is a sprinkling of black on a beige ground.

The collection at the Berlininsche Galerie occupies more than 1000 square metres. Waiting to be diescovered among roughly 250 works on show are paintings,prints, photographs, architecture and archive materials.

Walking around this exhibition is like time travel through Berlin: the Kaiser’s era, the Weimar Republic, the Nazi dictatorship, the new beginnings after 1945, Cold War in the divided city, and the counter-cultures and unconventional lifestyles that evolved in East and West under the shadow of the Wall. In East Berlin, an alternative art community developed from the late 1970s. In West Berlin from the late 1970s, aggressive art by the “Neue Wilden” placed the divided city back in the international limelight.

The permanent exhibition is accessible to the blind and the vision empaired by the way of tactile objects, a tactile guiding system on the floor, and an app.

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Accesible permanent exhibition

Tactile models of selected works and an inclusive audio guide enable visitors to use all their senses as they explore the Presentation from Our Collection. The guide contains audio descriptions to give the blind and visually impaired a closer idea of the original works. The audio pointers – in combination with our tactile floor guidance system – facilitate independent navigation around the exhibition. This offers our blind and visually impaired visitors interactive, barrier-free access to the Berlinische Galerie collection.

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Photo: Visitor sitting on a seat with a white cane touching a tactile model in the exhibition room.
© Foto: Daniel Müller

Press release

Art in Berlin 1880 – 1980

Permanent Exhibition