Bucerius Kunst Forum

About

The Bucerius Kunst Forum is an international exhibition centre in Hamburg, Germany, founded in 2002 through the ZEIT-Stiftung Ebelin und Gerd Bucerius foundation. It is named after Gerd Bucerius and his wife, and located directly beside the Hamburg Rathaus. The exhibition centre shows 3 - 4 exhibitions per year, in co-operation with other museums and collections. The exhibition centre participates in the Long Night of Museums.

The Bucerius Kunst Forum's mission is to showcase art of high quality in new contexts. The exhibitions focus on one topic, epoch or artist. They are intended to show artistic coherences, relationships between epochs and disciplines and to build bridges between ancient and modern art. The art pieces are to be viewed under a new aspect: an exhibition to the oeuvre of Henri Matisse gathered his portraits for the first time; the exhibition about Frida Kahlo devoted itself first to the connection between Mexican and European art. Thus also connoisseurs are to achieve new impressions.

The manageable size of the display area induces a precise focus of the topic and a limitation on 100 exhibits. At visitor-surveys three special experiences are named consistently: the visitors are delighted to be able to see the whole exhibition within one hour, without being exhausted; they have the satisfying feeling that their attention lasts for everything; and they were able to connect the experience of art with an increase in knowledge.

Despite the focus on a broad public demographic interested in the arts, the exhibitions of the Bucerius Kunst Forum are scientifically sound. Frequently they are preceded by a symposium, which assembles international specialists of one topic. During the symposium topics and theses of the exhibition are discussed. Until the summer of 2008 these symposiums took place at the Warburg Haus, Hamburg ; since the winter of 2008 they have been hosted at the Bucerius Kunst Forum. The contributions are printed in widely illustrated exhibition catalogues, which have been published by Hirmer Verlag since 2005.

For most of the exhibitions the exhibits are assembled from various museums around the world. Thus "Terror and Desire. The Temptation of St. Anthony from Hieronymus Bosch to Max Ernst" showed exhibits from more than 40 lenders from 10 different states, while "High Society. American Portraits of the Gilded Age" gathered exhibits from 32 lenders, among which were exhibits from 29 different museums of the United States. Occasionally exhibitions show thematic presentations, which are chosen from the collection of one institution, such as the Mannerism exhibition from the Szépmüvészeti Múzeum in Budapest or the exhibition "New World. Creating an American Art" with pieces from the Wadsworth Atheneum in Hartford (Connecticut).

So far the lenders have included, among others:

- Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf

- Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

- Städel Museum, Frankfurt am Main It belongs to the concepts of the house to design the display area for every new exhibition in fundamentally new colours and architecture to convey a new spatial experience every time.

The thematic range of the exhibitions is broadly defined and reaches from ancient times to the present age. From the field of archaeology there were exhibitions about the Etruscans, Cleopatra and "Painting for Eternity. The Tombs of Paestum". Extra-European cultures were discussed during "Art of the Silk Road. The Allure of Buddha", old masters through an exhibition about Lucas Cranach the Elder as well as "Greco, Velázquez, Goya. Spanish Paintings from German Collections", eras and periods of time through "Descent into the World. The Art of Mannerism in Europe" and "Between Heaven and Hell. Medieval Art".

Themed exhibitions discussed "Cloud Pictures" or "The Temptation of St. Anthony". The biggest thematic project so far was a trilogy about 150 years of American art from 1800 to 1950. From 2007 to 2009 it presented the three respective leading categories of paintings of the United States in three consecutive parts: 19th-century landscapes, portraits around 1900 and finally the urbanism of the years 1900 to 1950.

The focus is on artists of classical modernism. Up to this point Willi Baumeister, Max Beckmann, Marc Chagall, Otto Dix, Frida Kahlo, Oskar Kokoschka, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Auguste Rodin and the artist community Die Brücke have been paid tribute through monographic exhibitions.

The exhibition "Gerhard Richter. Images of an Era" in 2011 presented for the first time a contemporary artist at the Bucerius Kunst Forum.

In the summer of 2012 the Bucerius Kunst Forum dedicated itself to the medium of photography in the exhibition "New York Photography 1890-1900".

The concepts of all exhibitions are developed in-house by the scientific department of the house or in collaboration with visiting curators

Former curators and visiting curators were:

The "Bucerius Kunst Club", founded at the end of 2002, is the non-profit friends’ association of the Bucerius Kunst Forum. The wide programme of events during the exhibitions with technical lectures, readings, movies and concerts, excursions and art journeys are made possible by the Bucerius Kunst Club's subscriptions, donations and voluntary activities.

The club finances both the children's programme and the scientific traineeship of the house. This traineeship gives junior scientists a year-long education in the exhibition business.

The approximately 1,900 members of the club benefit depending on the category of their membership: they receive the exhibition catalogues for free, get free entry into the exhibition at any time and are invited to the openings and previews. They obtain reductions for the events and are allowed to participate in a wide offer of exclusive activities such as art journeys, day trips, seminars, and tours through the other culture institutions of Hamburg.

The Bucerius Kunst Forum is located at the Rathausmarkt, on the corner of the Alter Wall with the adjacent Rathaus and the building of the Hamburger Börse ( Handelskammer ) in the city centre, i.e., the historic city. On one side it adjoins the Alsterfleet with the Rathausschleuse.