Im­pres­sio­nism — Ger­man-French En­coun­ters at the Ham­bur­ger Kunst­hal­le

The ex­hi­bi­ti­on “Im­pres­sio­nism” at the Ham­bur­ger Kunst­hal­le of­fers a fa­sci­na­ting in­sight in­to the mu­se­um’s rich coll­ec­tion of Im­pres­sio­nist works and shows them in a glo­bal con­text. Wi­th around 70 ex­hi­bits, in­clu­ding pain­tings and sculp­tures by gre­ats such as Max Lie­ber­mann, Lo­vis Co­rinth, Clau­de Mo­net and Édouard Manet, the pre­sen­ta­ti­on traces the na­tio­nal and trans­na­tio­nal curr­ents of Im­pres­sio­nism. The fo­cus is on the ques­ti­on of whe­ther it still makes sen­se to­day to as­sign Im­pres­sio­nism to clear na­tio­nal bor­ders — or whe­ther mu­tu­al in­fluen­ces and com­mon ar­tis­tic im­pul­ses in a Eu­ro­pean con­text should not ra­ther ta­ke cent­re stage.

Cu­ra­ted by Dr Ka­rin Schick and Dr Mar­kus Bertsch, the ex­hi­bi­ti­on in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to ex­plo­re the di­ver­se mo­tifs and in­ter­ac­tions bet­ween Ger­man and French ar­tists. The­ma­tic groups such as por­trait, land­scape, staged fi­gu­re, ci­ty and lei­su­re as well as still life can be dis­co­ver­ed. The ex­hi­bi­ti­on is an in­te­gral part of the Licht­wark Gal­lery’s tour of the coll­ec­tion and is cha­rac­te­ri­sed by an at­trac­ti­ve de­sign that in­vi­tes vi­si­tors to lin­ger and ta­ke a clo­ser look. A spe­cial fo­cus is on the “Fran­co-Ger­man en­coun­ters”, in which the dif­fe­ren­ces and si­mi­la­ri­ties bet­ween the two na­tio­nal im­pres­sio­nisms are im­pres­si­ve­ly il­lu­mi­na­ted and scru­ti­ni­sed.