Dear visitor, the Museum is temporarily closed due to the COVID-19 Pandemic. We will inform you as soon as we can reopen. Take care

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Kunstfoyer has been reopened on March 9th 2021! Sebastião Salgado. "EXODUS" is an exhibition that highlights how Salgado urgently campaigned for social justice and peace, and long before he gained wide public acclaim with his project "GENESIS" or the documentary, "The Salt of the Earth" (2014) by Wim Wenders. In the photographic series "EXODUS",...

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Photography has many facets. [...] My intention, time and again, is to convey people and the small and large things around them pictorially and through the medium of photography. Look Here! (Schaut her!) Toni Schneiders. Retrospective. Toni Schneiders is one of Germany’s defining photographers. Within the context of the group fotoform and the...

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This retrospective celebrates the spectacular night photography and early colour images of the American photographer O. Winston Link. In the 1950s he captured the action and atmosphere of America's last steam locomotives from the Norfolk & Western Railway. The exhibition includes 120 exquisite photographs, sound recordings, sketches and...

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Saul Leiter (1923–2013) has only in recent years finally received his due as one of the great pioneers of color photography. This can perhaps be attributed to the fact that Leiter saw himself for a long time mainly as a painter. After coming to New York in 1946, he exhibited alongside Abstract Expressionists like Willem de Kooning before...

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Das Programm des Kunstfoyers startet 2019 mit einer Ausstellung über Selbstportraits. Im Zeitalter des „Selfies“ widmet es sich einem Großmeister dieses Genres.

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The Kunstfoyer is pleased to open its 2018 schedule with an exhibition of highly aesthetic photographs by three grand masters of the métier: Richard Avedon, George Hoyningen-Huene, and Irving Penn, each of whom already represents an unparalled highlight of American photographic history in their own right. A subtle handling of the line is the...

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Die zweite Ausstellung im Kunstfoyer 2018 widmet sich der legendären Ufa (Universum Film Aktiengesellschaft). Die Traumfabrik des deutschen Films hat eine wechselvolle Geschichte. Im Dezember 2017 feiert die Filmproduktionsfirma Ufa ihren 100. Geburtstag. Zum Jubiläum der Ufa präsentiert die Deutsche Kinemathek – Museum für Film und...

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This landmark exhibition celebrates the 70th anniversary of the renowned photo agency Magnum Photos created by Robert Capa, Henri Cartier-Bresson, George Rodger, and Chim (David Seymour) in 1947. Tracing the ideas and ideals behind the founding and development of the legendary cooperative, curator Clément Chéroux explores the history...

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Martin Parr (*1952) ist einer der bedeutendsten Dokumentarfotografen unserer Zeit. In seinen Arbeiten zeigt der Brite die gesellschaftliche Realität: Phänomene wie Konsum, Tourismus oder nationale Identitäten beleuchtet er aus einer unterhaltsamen Perspektive, die das Banale, Extreme und manchmal auch Abgründige im Alltäglichen sichtbar...

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To mark the 100th anniversary of Peter Keetman’s birth, Museum Folkwang and Stiftung F.C. Gundlach are presenting the first comprehensive retrospective of the eminent photographer’s work. After its first stop at the Museum Folkwang in Essen, the exhibition will continue on to the Deichtorhallen, Hamburg and the Kunstfoyer in the...

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A camera doesn’t simply take pictures. It’s a powerful tool against oppression, racism, violence and inequality – it can be enormously effective! And Gordon Parks referred to the camera as his weapon of choice and used the photographic medium his entire life in an intelligent and educational way to both expose the underbelly of the American...

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In 1990, seven East German photographers founded Ostkreuz in Paris. President François Mitterrand had invited the photographers to the French capital for an exhibition featuring major GDR-artists. At that time, the Berlin Wall had already fallen but Germany was still officially divided. By founding the agency, they would brace themselves for...

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Swiss Magnum photographer Werner Bischof worked as a photojournalist for the high-circulation magazines “Life” and “Picture Post.” Prior to his untimely death in 1954 he created a multifaceted oeuvre within the span of but a few years. April 2016 marked the 100th anniversary of his birth, and the exhibition at the Kunstfoyer is an homage...

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This camera changed the way we view the world. Forever. The falling soldier by Robert Capa, the puddle jumper by Henri Cartier-Bresson, the Times Square kiss by Alfred Eisenstaedt, Vietnamese children fleeing from a Napalm attack by Nick Út, the Soviet flag being raised above the Berlin Reichstag by Yevgeny Khaldei – all these famous...

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Kunstfoyer Munich is the second exhibition venue in Germany to present Sebastião Salgado’s work Genesis, with 245 photographs. The exhibition is curated by Lélia Wanick Salgado. A catalog has been published by Taschen Verlag. Archaic volcanic landscapes, arctic ice masses, meandering river canyons, moun­tain chains enveloped in mist,...

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„The cinema is there to heighten the imagination; I have always tried to make sure it does so.” „Bigger Than Life“ is more than just the title of a comprehensive exhibition about one of the 20th century’s most innovative and most influential production designers, it is also the philosophy of his work. Sir Ken Adam, born in Berlin in 1921...

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Konrad Klapheck? That’s the guy with the typewriters. This is probably what the Düsseldorf-born artist brings to most people’s minds. One of his best-known works is “Der Krieg” (“War”) from 1965, in which the painter depicts small handwheels mounted on black machines; marshaled as for war; they appear gigantic against a fiery red sky....

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GESICHTER AFGHANISTANS For the past three decades Afghanistan has owed its place in the public mind primarily to negative headlines. Civil wars and the Taliban’s reign of terror ravaged the country. In the meantime, the focus of the global community has shifted to the terror organization ISIL, and Afghanistan has, to an extent, faded from view....

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As part of its series devoted to documentary photography, the Kunstfoyer presents never-before- seen interior views of the BND site in Pullach. The photos are displayed as highly detailed large-format images. Encompassing an area of 68 hectares, the area was hermetically hidden from public view for decades behind high concrete walls and steel...

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“We live in a privileged world. Just take a look around and you will notice the differences. But these privileges must be devoted to the service of something one believes in.”  Henri Cartier-Bresson They were pioneers of photojournalism. They were idealists with humanitarian standards: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, George Rodger, David...

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The exhibition BERND EICHINGER ...ALLES KINO focuses on the life story of Bernd Eichinger – from his childhood in Rennertshofen (Upper Bavaria), to his first attempts at filmmaking and early work as a producer, and finally to his international success with Constantin Film and his work as a writer and director. Bernd Eichinger once couched his...

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„She was the first woman to photograph the steel mills; the first to belong to the team of photographers for Fortune and Life Magazines; the first foreigner to photograph the Soviet Union in 1930; the first female photographer to work for the U.S. Air force ( the first uniform for a female war correspondent was designed for her); the only...

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“ To make a good photograph, you have to be enthusiastic. That is, you have to think about it, like a poet would.” (Imogen Cunningham) A young woman lying naked in a field of dandelions. Her hair is pulled up in a high knot. Grass hides her face. It is the self-portrait of Imogen Cunningham as a university student. Nowadays nothing out of the...

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The exhibition “Licht und Schatten, am Filmset der Weimarer Republik” is a voyage of discovery to an especially creative phase of German cinematic history. Grand emotions and imminent dangers as well as contemporary themes and visions of the future were translated into moving pictures. Movies like Nosferatu , Metropolis , The Blue Angel , and...

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Storyboards aid the visualization of cinematic movement long before actual shooting begins. Both shot sequences and camera movement can be sketched in a fashion very similar to a comic strip. On the one hand, the storyboard gives insight into the artistic concept of a film, and on the other, it develops its own independent aesthetic appeal....

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This spring, the Kunstfoyer pays homage to the grand dame of photography with a retrospective that is also Eve Arnold’s first exhibition in Germany. On view will be her photo essays, including New York by Night, Harlem Fashion Shows (1950), the First Five Minutes of a Baby’s Life, Voodoo in Haiti, Malcolm X, Vogue Fashion Shows (1977), her...

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What makes a photograph newsworthy? What makes a photograph sensational? We learn a lot about the world we don’t live in through the media. We see an increasing number of images from global hotspots, wars, and catastrophes. People risk their lives demonstrating for their freedom and appealing to the international community. Images alone do not...

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Berlin is booming. Ever since the wall came down, the metropolis has attracted many artistic talents. A large number of artists, as well as galleries, have concentrated in Berlin over the last years, and the museum scene has also profited enormously from the upswing the city is enjoying. Berlin has always been ennobled by big names, but it is,...

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Martin Munkacsi (1896 – 1963) undisputedly ranks among the leading photographers of the 20th century. Born in Hungary, he helped shape modern photojournalism in its early days and brought action to what had, up to then, been a static medium. Munkacsi combined journalistic exactitude with a high formal-aesthetic ideal. He was one of the most...

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A portrait of a city that is an amalgam of all cities. 17 photo stories. The exhibition celebrating the twentieth anniversary of the Ostkreuz agency was shown at C/O Berlin from 8 May through 4 July 2010 and will be on view at the Kunstfoyer der Versicherungskammer Bayern in Munich as of 4 November. In 2011 it will begin its journey around the...

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For over one hundred years, an intense relationship has existed between the cinema and photography. The motion picture needs the photograph in order to grab the attention of the real world. All of its beauty and imagination, its art and popularity are inconceivable without the images reproduced in newspapers and periodicals, magazines and books,...

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When I came to the West, I felt as if I had reverted to my childhood, and at the same time, as if I had been transported to a science-fiction world. Time stopped and elapsed at the same time. It was a very strange feeling that tugged at one’s identity. (A.R. Penck in: Kunst heute, Nr. 6, Cologne, 1990) A.R. Penck was born Ralf Winkler on 5...

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His future career as a professional photographer soon begins to take shape, however, when he is hired first by the BBC’s The Listener magazine and subsequently by the Black Star Agency in 1938. Thanks to his photographs taken during the “Blitz” – the German Luftwaffe’s offensive against London –, he attracts the attention of LIFE...

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“The adventurer in me felt obliged to testify with a quicker instrument than the brush to the scars of the world.” (Henri Cartier-Bresson) They were pioneers of photojournalism. They were idealists with humanitarian aspirations. Their instinct for international current events is legendary: Henri Cartier-Bresson, Robert Capa, David Seymour,...

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“A rifle bullet in flight or the splashing of a drop of milk, taken in the millionth of a second – using a technique discovered by science – can become an artistic experience. The abstract and harmonious graphism of crystals, of cells, and botanic particles, enlarged a thousand times, or simply the shimmering reflection of a drop of oil in a...

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“Two ugly characteristics have always overshadowed my character: defiance and curiosity. To put it more elegantly: a thirst for knowledge. And so it came to pass that I became a photographer in defiance of academic painting, but remained a painter, however, in defiance of photography.” (Heinz Hajek-Halke) This is the first retrospective to...

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Pravoslav Sovak is one of the most prominent figures in contemporary art. He was born in Bohemia in 1926 and has lived in Switzerland since 1969. He provokes philosophical reflection with his works, which he creates using complex methods ranging from etching to the rare technique of photogravure. He studies the concept of time and especially the...

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Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 - 2004) ranks among the most prominent photographers of the 20th century. He took portraits of political and public figures while also displaying respect for the many who remained nameless. He was a humanist and a revolutionary. In 1947 he and Robert Capa, David Seymour, George Rodger, and Bill Vandivert founded the...

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Günther Uecker produced a multifaceted oeuvre. He grew up in Mecklenburg, where he was born in 1930, and became popular as an artist after resettling in West Germany – although he remained a wanderer between two worlds. During the early sixties, he already stood in the front ranks of art renewal as a member of the legendary avant-garde group...

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Ilya Kabakov (*1933) developed his dissident work in the Soviet underground. He was officially an illustrator of children’s books. Since his emigration in 1987, he has finally been able to realize some of his numerous projects, supported by his wife and partner Emilia Kabakov. Since then, Ilya Kabakov has pursued the idea of a total work of art...

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He took the first photographs of Soviet rockets and the only group shot of Marilyn Monroe alongside the cast and crew of “The Misfits.” He gained international fame, however, with his humorous pictures of dogs. What distinguishes Elliott Erwitt is his unique ability to sense what is going to happen next. “I rarely stage pictures. I wait for...

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His biography resembles those of James Dean, Yves Klein, or Jimi Hendrix. His short but intense life gave rise to many myths. A master pupil of Joseph Beuys, Peter Heisterkamp (1943-1977), alias Blinky Palermo, found success and death at an early age and left behind an oeuvre that is in high demand among collectors. His works have a significant...

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Jörg Immendorff is one of Germany’s best-known painters – and he has a lot of confidence in his pictures: i.e., he expects that they will attract large numbers of people, and that the exhibition will make a lasting impression on them. After making the headlines of the tabloids last year, he hopes to shift the focus back to his artwork and to...

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“She knew that she could create what fed the camera, and that was her special ability.” “She had an enormous sense of play, a delicious sense of fun which was at once irreverent and elusive.” “More ink, paper, film and developer were lavished on her than anyone else of her generation, and more books have been written about her . . . ;...

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They are considered the most radiant couple in art: Jean Tinguely (1925-1991), the designer of clangorous kinetic sculpture machines, and Niki de Saint Phalle (1930-2002), the creator of colorful figures she named “Nanas” and other fanciful creatures. The fact that their works both contrast and relate to one another makes a juxtaposition of...

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Sigmar Polke always has a surprise in store with his ambiguous pictorial irony and witty titles, captions, and collaged texts. The same is true of his editions, which prove to be an extremely multifaceted group of works: since 1963, his prints, contributions to catalogs, pamphlets, and posters have been augmented by photographs and even...

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The exhibition “Traces and Symbols” is dedicated to an art movement that originated in the 1970s. Although no artists ever referred to themselves singly or collectively as “trace seekers” or “trace conservationists,” the term has nevertheless since gained currency for certain artistic approaches of a similar stripe. It is used to...

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Joseph Beuys was always interested in attracting public notice on a large scale. It therefore seems only logical that he relied heavily on the medium of the poster to draw attention to his exhibitions, happenings, and his socio-political involvement. No other segment of his oeuvre proclaims his goals as trenchantly as his posters, and yet he often...

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Born in Munich in 1941, Lambert Maria Wintersberger is one of the few German artists to respond directly to pop art. Like his older American colleagues, he focuses on the world of advertising and consumption while concentrating on cosmetic images. He wrests a significance from this visual world that is literally painful. Monstrously oversized body...

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“I don’t want to be infected with this respectable and immaculate image of a painter from nature....The “landscape” is becoming an idyllic genre that evades the complications of modern life. I, however, am a modern painter. I paint pictures, not landscapes.” (Per Kirkeby, Handbuch, Berlin, 1993) Per Kirkeby’s works and texts reflect...

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