Collection and Renewal – Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden present annual topic and programme for 2023

Sammlung und Aufbruch – Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden present annual topic and programme for 2023

The next year at the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden (SKD) will be on the theme of “Collection and Renewal”.

At the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, the Czech Season will be entering its grand finale. The exhibition “All power to the imagination!” (25 February‑9 July 2023) will bring together works by around 45 artists belonging to different generations and genres. Classic and modernist works and contemporary idioms collide in spectacular fashion here with František Kupka’s abstract paintings, a monumental piece by Magdaléna Jetelová or a light sculpture by Krištof Kintera, made from thousands of light bulbs.

To mark the 350th anniversary of Rosalba Carriera’s birth, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister will be dedicating an exhibition to the Venetian pastellist entitled “Elegant Encounters. Rosalba Carriera – Perfection in Pastel” (9 June‑24 September 2023). Carriera was one of the most famous portraitists of her time; her pastels were a great success throughout Europe. Dresden holds the largest collection of Carriera’s pastel works, with 73 pieces. At the same time, a small, intimate exhibition will be devoted to other woman artists who have previously tended to live somewhat in the shadow of the great names of art history, despite prevailing in a professional field then dominated by men. This condensed display entitled “Out of the Shadows. Female artists of the 16th to 18th century” (12 May‑12 November 2023) focuses on works by Lavinia Fontana, Marietta Robusti, Theresa Concordia Maron and Angelika Kauffmann.

The exhibition “Connecting Worlds. Artists & Travel” in the Kupferstich-Kabinett (8 July‑8 October 2023) investigates artists’ travels from the Renaissance to the early modern period. Artists such as Albrecht Dürer, Angelika Kauffmann or Zacharias Wagner endured many hardships to explore distant places or seize professional opportunities, producing drawings, sketches and prints on the road, at their destination and on their return as a means of processing the impressions left upon them. The exhibition is being organised in international collaboration with the Katrin Bellinger Collection, London.

From 15 July, the ground floor of the Japanisches Palais will be transformed into a “Museum of Innocence” (15 July 2023‑25 February 2024). This series of exhibitions that will also be held in Prague and Munich is being planned in cooperation with the author and winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature, Orhan Pamuk. “The Museum of Innocence” is the title of his 2008 novel and also the name of a museum designed by the author in the heart of Istanbul. Pamuk used installations, memories and everyday objects to reconstruct the lives of the lovers Kemal and Sibel in Istanbul from 1975 to 1985, as described in his book.

The exhibition “Fragments of Memory. The Treasure of St. Vitus Cathedral in Prague” will be held in the Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau (9 September 2023‑28 January 2024) and centres on the cathedral’s trove of religious relics, gathered and maintained over the centuries. Focusing on the topic of belief and memories, the relics will be juxtaposed with photographs by Josef Koudelka, ceramics by Edmund de Waal and the film “In the Land of Drought” by Julian Rosefeldt.

Following an opening exhibition, a conference on the topic “The Global GDR. A Transcultural History of Art (1949–1990)”, academic discussion groups and an accompanying programme of events on the online platform voices in 2022, the project “KONTRAPUNKTE” (“counterpoints”) will culminate in the exhibition “Revolutionary Romances. Transcultural Art Histories in the GDR” (15 September 2023‑7 January 2024), held in the Albertinum. The findings will make for a broader view of the GDR’s cultural relationships with socialist countries, especially those of the Global South, and their independence movements. As well as works from the holdings of the SKD, international examples of contemporary art will also be displayed.

In line with the motto for 2023, the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister will be focusing on its own collection, with some 80 pieces presented in the exhibition “Timeless Beauty. A History of still life” (17 November 2023‑28 April 2024). The display rediscovers the still life genre, with masterpieces by artists such as Frans Snyders, Balthasar van der Ast, Jan Davidsz. de Heem, Adriaen van Utrecht and Willem Claesz.

Meanwhile, at the GRASSI Museum für Völkerkunde zu Leipzig, another part of the revamped permanent exhibition will be opening (from 9 December 2022).

In 2023, the SKD will also be celebrating 300 years of the Green Vault. The event will be accompanied by an intervention by the contemporary artist Olaf Nicolai (from 31 January 2023), the presentation “Napoleon and ‘The Swooning of Esther’” (11 March–5 June 2023) and Heinrich Taddel’s collection of stone specimens (24 June‑9 October 2023).

In the Kunstgewerbemuseum, the exhibition “Plant Fever” will launch the season (29 April‑31 October 2023), and the Museum für Völkerkunde Dresden will be examining Jewish museums from an ethnological perspective.

The SKD’s annual press conference began and ended with a performance by Felix Räuber (former frontman of “Polarkreis 18”), who recently embarked on a journey of musical discovery through his home state of Saxony for his project “Wie klingt Heimat” (The sounds of home). At the Museum für Sächsische Volkskunst, the audio-visual and video recordings made on his treasure hunt will be presented in the exhibition “The Sounds of Heimat. A documentary installation” (25 March‑22 October 2023).

A momentous event is on the horizon. 2024 marks 250 years since Caspar David Friedrich’s birth. Numerous activities will be taking place in his honour throughout Germany. The SKD will be among those celebrating this anniversary, with a spectacular festival in the Albertinum, the Kupferstich-Kabinett and the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister.

Marion Ackermann, Director-General of Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, thanked not only the Saxon government, but also all the sponsors who support the museums association, even during a crisis: “A significant amount of funding comes from the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media, who plays a major role in supporting and improving our museums. A special mention also goes to our sponsors, which have given the museums association their backing with great dedication for the past 17 years: the Sparkasse financial group, which is our main sponsor, and Lange Uhren in Glashütte. Thanks to the Czech Season, we have also gained new sponsors such as PRO-ZETA in Prague. Another important partner is the Ernst von Siemens Kunststiftung; I would especially like to draw attention to their UKRAINE funding line in association with the HERMANN REEMTSMA STIFTUNG. In addition, our warm thanks go to the German Federal Cultural Foundation, the Cultural Foundation of the German Federal States, the German Lost Art Foundation and all other foundations and funding institutions. Last, but not least, the personal effort made by the members of our friends associations is a valuable component of our work, as is every single donation. Our heartfelt thanks to you all.”