Sunset A Celebration of the Sinking Sun   26.11.2022 – 02.04.2023

From the perspective of the fine arts, this excessively popular motif has lost its allure: It is seen as tacky and twee. The Kunsthalle Bremen is now traversing the history of art with its exhibition “Sunset”. Significant loans and works from its own collection take viewers from the Romantic era to the twenty-first century. The works capture the emotional power of a single moment in time that functions as a metaphor for life and its finite nature, its breath-taking beauty, its dreams and upheavals and its apocalyptic visions. In addition, numerous contemporary works reflect on the questions we are faced with when looking at this heavenly spectacle today. They examine the crossover between art and kitsch, address the physics of the phenomenon between the afterglow and conduct the twilight hour and atmospheric research in a figurative and a concrete environmental sense.

A total of around 120 paintings, drawings, prints, photographs, videos and installations will be presented by:
Anna Ancher, Ludolf Backhuysen, Heinz Baden, Heike Kati Barath, Ernst Barlach, Viktoria Binschtok, Claus Böhmler, Anthonie van Borssom, Félix Bracquemond, Thorsten Brinkmann, Jacques Callot, Carl Gustav Carus, Alex Cecchetti, Antoine Chintreuil, Johan Christian Clausen Dahl, Tacita Dean, Otto Dix, Holger Drachmann, Max Ernst, Lyonel Feininger, Peter Fischli/ David Weiss, Heinrich Jakob Fried, Caspar David Friedrich, Joachim Christian Friedrich, Hendrick Goltzius, Gustave Marie Greux, Christian Haake, Wolfgang Hainke, Richard Hamilton, Dudley Hardy, Daniel Hausig, Marikke Heinz-Hoek, Takahashi Shōtei Hiroaki, Utagawa Hiroshige, Johanna Jaeger, Johan Barthold Jongkind, Olrik Kohlhoff, Johann Wilhelm Julius Köhnholz, Ulrike Königshofer, August Kopisch, Friedrich Kunath, Georges Lacombe, Jens Lausen, Charles Laval, Le Corbusier, Claude Lorrain, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Henri Meunier, Michel (Michael Wulf), Claude Monet, Jonathan Monk, Christian Morgenstern, Emil Nolde, Matthieu van Plattenberg, Thomas Rentmeister, Gerhard Richter, Dieter Roth, Carl Rottmann, Phillip Otto Runge, Edward Ruscha, Jörg Sasse, Josef Scharl, Franz Wilhelm Schiertz, Jan Schmidt, Konrad Schulz, Marina Schulze, Susan Schuppli, Norbert Schwontkowski, Paul Signac, Klaus Staeck, Fiete Stolte, Wolfgang Tillmans, William Turner, Günther Uecker, Félix Vallotton, Andy Warhol, Thomas Weinberger, Josef Weisz

Light Installation
The facade of the Kunsthalle becomes the stage for the fascinating light installation SW-235° 16:16 h by the Swiss artist Daniel Hausig. Coloured light scenes and sequences wander across the windows of the Kunsthalle.

Photographs of sunsets
Before the exhibition opened, the public was invited to submit their own photographs of sunsets for the show. The response was overwhelming: More than 6,000 photos were received. A selection of 111 photographs is presented in the exhibition in the form of a calendar with a new sunset each day during the show. Other photos are used for a free postcard, a poster exhibition in the cafeteria at the University of Bremen and for communication on social media.

Background information
On our blog Andreas Vogel, astronomer and director of the Olbers Planetarium in Bremen insights into the physical phenomena of the sunset and his collaboration with the Kunsthalle.
Click here for the interview on the Kunsthalle Blog (in German only).

Public Tours:
(in German only) Fri 3 pm, Sun 3 pm
Tickets are available at kunsthalle-bremen.de/tickets or one hour before start of the tour at the museum desk | € 6,- (plus admission fee)

Public Tours Online:
(in German) every first Fri of the month 5 pm
Tickets are available at kunsthalle-bremen.de/tickets | € 6,- per person

Guided Tours and Online Tours for groups:
(available in German, Dutch, English, French and Russian)
€ 80,- (plus admission fee / except for online tours)
€ 90,- on weekends and public holidays (plus admission fee / except for online tours)
from € 50,- for school classes
Information and registration: T +49 (0)421 - 32 908 220 or right here.

Sunset exklusive:
Enjoy with your guests the Sunset Exhibition exclusively beyond the opening hours!
Further information and advice you: T +49 (0)421 - 32 908 197

Exhibition Catalogue
A richly illustrated book leads beyond the horizon of art history: poetic and scientific perspectives also expand the cosmos of the exhibition.
The catalogue is published by Hatje Cantz Verlag (in German), 256 pages, edited by Annett Reckert, with texts by Ulrike Draesner, Annett Reckert, Angela Tietze, Friederike Quander, Uwe Schneede and Andreas Vogel, with poems by Sylvia Geist, Arne Rautenberg, Mirko Bonné, Lisa Jeschke, Marcel Beyer, Cia Rinne, Jan Wagner and Anja Kampmann.
€ 28,- at the museum shop (no shipment) | € 34,- at book stores (ISBN 978-3-7757-5422-4)

Art Surfer
An atmospheric audio guide has been created for the exhibition. Artist and musician Janis E. Müller composed nine soundscapes for individual rooms. In addition, the audio guide includes eight poems created for the exhibition that correspond to an individual work of art (in German).
Available in the Art Surfer web app on your own smartphone | free of charge
www.artsurfer.kunsthalle-bremen.de
(only available via W-LAN in the museum, please bring your own headphones)

Sunset Booklet for Children (in German).
On 40 pages, a booklet in Pixi book format explains main exhibits for children. The protagonist is the sun itself. In a lively way, it describes art-historical and scientific themes that are linked to the works. The booklet “Fragen an die Sonne“ is available free of charge for children and families at the museum ticket desk (in German).

Sunset Presents at the Museum Shop
Give the gift of sunset anticipation in three variations: Always includes two admission vouchers for the Sunset exhibition – plus a towel in the colours of the sunset, a pair of socks with a sunset motif or a tea towel with a matching graphic design | € 35,- each

Sunset inside Café Sylvette
Every day, just in time for sunset, the Café Sylvette serves a sun-downer specially created for the exhibition. Before or after the exhibition – just enjoy!

Accompanying youth project
For the third time, the Kunsthalle Bremen is cooperating with the art festival Youth for Art and making its rooms available for this purpose. Within this context, works by over 30 young people who have been inspired by the exhibition were presented in the South Foyer until 8 January 2023.

Sunset Yoga with image meditation
On the occasion of the exhibition, seven yogis present their individual variations of saying goodbye to the sun. Instead of Sun Salutations, you can expect 15-20 minutes of Sundowner Yoga. Beforehand, the co-curator of the Sunset exhibition will introduce a work and a theme of the exhibition for about 3 minutes (in German).
You can find all seven yoga videos on our YouTube channel.