Top exhibitions in Berlin 2024
Must see: Highlights of Berlin’s museums and exhibition venues
The art metropolis of Berlin is an international exhibition venue, whether contemporary art, classical modernism or antiquity, whether photo exhibitions, installations, painting or sculpture. You can see world-class art exhibitions in Berlin's museums and exhibition centres. Here is our selection of current and upcoming exhibitions:
CURRENT
Josephine Baker. Icon in Motion
She was an icon in Paris and Berlin from the 1920s onwards: as a dancer, actress and singer with an unmistakable style. Her early media presence in films, photographs and sound recordings have now become an almost clichéd memory of her. The audiovisual exhibition allows visitors to experience the artist's high level of expressiveness and her strategy for success.
When: until 28 April 2024
Where: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin
Edvard Munch: Transforming Nature
In the exhibition, which was shown in New York in 2023, Munch's fascination with nature is explored through more than 110 works from international collections. Experience his focus on landscape motifs and his attempt to fathom man's place in the cosmic cycle of life.
When: until 1 April 2024
Where: Museum Barberini, Humboldtstraße 5-6
Old Market
14467 Potsdam
Dinosaurs! Age of the giant lizards
At eye level with predatory dinosaurs: right at the beginning you will see three spectacular original predatory dinosaur skulls, including the rare find of a young T-Rex. Experience the public's favourite Tristan, the pitch-black original skeleton of a Tyrannosaurus rex and other dinosaurs from the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceous periods.
When: Special exhibition until 30 November 2024
Where: Museum für Naturkunde Berlin, Invalidenstr. 43, 10115 Berlin
Extreme Tension. Art between Politics and Society
The Neue Nationalgalerie's new collection presentation on art after 1945 documents a time of turmoil: the post-war years, the Cold War, social upheaval and the fall of the Berlin Wall. See masterful artistic positions from the Federal Republic and the GDR, from Western Europe and the USA as well as from the former socialist states.
When: until 28 September 2025
Where: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin
Roads not Taken. Or: Things could have turned out differently
Seeing the familiar from a new perspective and recognising how open historical processes really are: This is the idea behind the major exhibition, which examines 14 decisive historical processes of the 19th and 20th centuries in Germany. A special theme for the 35th anniversary in 2024 is, of course, the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.
When: until 11 January 2026
Where: German Historical Museum, Unter den Linden 2, 10117 Berlin
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Pergamon Museum. The panorama
The Pergamon Museum on Museum Island is closed. But the 360° staging by Yadegar Asisi in a unique collaboration with the Collection of Classical Antiquities allows visitors to experience the Pergamon Altar in its original form on the Acropolis: with around 80 of the most important works from Pergamon - including the largest part of the Telephos frieze from the Pergamon Altar and the "Beautiful Head", the colossal head of Heracles.
When: Permanent exhibition
Where: Temporary exhibition building, Am Kupfergraben 2, 10117 Berlin
Vektor. Memories in Light & Sound
The Kraftwerk Berlin, a former combined heat and power plant from the industrialisation era, offers the perfect stage for Christopher Bauder's latest Gesamtkunstwerk with its gigantic cathedral-like space: immerse yourself in the live show of three-dimensional soundscapes that merge with 50 moving lasers to create a profound audiovisual experience.
When: until 7 April 2024
Where: Kraftwerk Berlin, Köpenicker Straße 70, 10179 Berlin
Rescued Modernism. Masterpieces from Kirchner to Picasso
The year is 1937 in the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett: the works of outstanding artists are removed as "degenerate art". A courageous curator is able to secretly save hundreds of these pictures. They are now exhibited, revealing their great artistic quality and diversity. See works by Beckmann, Dix, Grosz, Heckel, Kirchner, Kandinsky, Kollwitz, Matisse, Munch and Picasso.
When: until 21 April 2024
Where: Kupferstichkabinett, Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin
"My verses are like dynamite"
"Perhaps at some point in the future,
the poems in your tongue I composed,
will be brought to your notice,
and if so, to delight will I then be disposed."
(Transl. by Aubrey Pomerance)
During the Second World War, the German-Jewish author Curt Bloch created a satirical work of resistance against the Nazis in his hiding place in the Netherlands, full of biting mockery against the fascist leaders of Europe. See all the original editions and experience poetry readings and video performances.
When: until 26 May 2024
Where: Jewish Museum, Lindenstr. 9-14, 10969 Berlin
Chronorama. Photographic Treasures of the 20th Century
The exhibition was a great success in Venice. Now you can see a fantastic overview of photographic masterpieces in Berlin - from the beginnings of photography to the 1970s. In cooperation with the Pinault Collection, 250 works on fashion, society, lifestyle and culture are on display, by artists such as Diane Arbus, Robert Frank, Helmut Newton and Irving Penn.
When: until 20 May 2024
Where: Museum for Photography, Jebensstraße 2, 10623 Berlin
ON VIEW
Caspar David Friedrich. Infinite Landscapes
The great German Romantic painter will be celebrated in 2024: To mark his 250th birthday, several cities in Germany are presenting independent exhibitions.
Berlin will be showing more than 100 of his world-famous paintings throughout the summer of 2024, focussing on the artist's rediscovery in Berlin in 1906.
When: 19 April to 4 August 2024
Where: Alte Nationalgalerie, Bodestraße, 10178 Berlin
Blown Away: the Palace of the Republic
Exactly where the Humboldt Forum stands today, once stood the "People's Palace" of the GDR, a political centre and place of representation, but also of entertainment. In the 35th anniversary year of the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tasks, functions, impact and, of course, memories will be brought to life on 1,400 square metres at the authentic site.
When: 17 May 2024 to 16 February 2025
Where: Humboldt Forum, Schloßplatz, 10178 Berlin
Andy Warhol. Velvet Rage and Beauty
How did it feel to live as a gay man in the 1960s and 1970s in a supposedly predominantly heterosexual world? Warhol's art, which deals with this personal life theme, is largely unknown. Now numerous works are being shown that reflect Warhol's lifelong search for the ideal beauty of the male body.
When: 9 June to 6 October 2024
Where: Neue Nationalgalerie, Potsdamer Straße 50, 10785 Berlin
Frans Hals. Master of the moment
Alongside Rembrandt and Vermeer, the portrait painter Frans Hals is one of the most important Dutch painters of the 17th century and had a major influence on the development of modern art. Follow his lively, relaxed painting style, which inspired the Impressionists in particular, and see around 70 of his works from Amsterdam, London and Berlin.
When: 12 July to 3 November 2024
Where: Gemäldegalerie, Matthäikirchplatz, 10785 Berlin