Art After 1945

A special focus of the collection is on the exploration of light and movement in art after World War II. The pioneering paintings, sculptures, and light objects by the group Zero around Günther Uecker, Heinz Mack, and Otto Piene are highlighted – Piene’s famous light and audio performance Die Sonne kommt näher / Proliferation of the Sun (1966/67) is especially remarkable.

The Kunsthalle Bremen is known for its major collection of new media art. This includes a comprehensive set of video works by Nam June Paik, which allows visitors to follow his development from early experiments with televisions through to his late complex video installations. Another highlight is John Cage’s key work Writing through the Essay ‘On the Duty of Civil Disobedience’ (1985/91) on the upper floor of the Kunsthalle, which was first installed at documenta 8 in Kassel and impressively illustrates Cage’s idea of a total work of art through its use of space, sound, and light.

In addition, the Kunsthalle possesses one of the world’s most important collections of early computer graphics. They comprehensively document the emergence of this medium in the 1960s and 70s with works by Kurd Alsleben, Otto Beckmann, Herbert W. Franke, Frieder Nake, Georg Nees, and Vera Molnár among others.