English

16.3. TO 8.9.24

Günter Haese, renowned sculptor and participant in the documenta and the Biennale, would have celebrated his 100th birthday on February 18, 2024. To mark this anniversary, the museum is dedicating a special presentation to him, focusing on Haese’s sculptures of geometric precision and minimalist design. The exhibtion will be opend together with “Jean Leppien. Die Schenkung”.

Curator: Reinhard Spieler

Press conference: 14.3.24, 11.00 am

Official opening: 15.3.24, 7 pm

10.4. TO 28.7.24

All of them from northern Germany and from the same generation, the show combines four artists and their works, which are enriching the graphic collection of the Sprengel Museum Hannover as donations and bequests. With works by Dietrich Helms (1933 Osnabrück to 2022 Hamburg), Arnold Leissler (1939 Hanover to 2014 Hanover), Siegfried Neuenhausen (*1931 Dormagen, lives in Hanover) and Kai Sudeck (1928 Lübeck to 1995 Ratzeburg). The exhibtion will be opend together with “Peter Tuma. Aufkommende Unruhe”

Curator: Karin Orchard

Press conference: 9.4.24, 11.00 am

Official opening: 9.4.24, 6.30 pm

10.4. TO 28.7.24

Peter Tuma (*1938 in Wolsdorf, near Helmstedt) looks back on a career as a painter and graphic artist spanning six decades. „Aufkommende Unruhe“ not only describes one of Tuma‘s works,but also reflects the feeling that overcomes him in the face of climate change and the current social and political circumstances. The exhibition shows 16 large-format works that depict current issues such as advancing climate change, the destruction of the environment and digitalization.The exhibtion will be opend together with “Nordlichter.”.

Curator: Talia Walther

Press conference: 9.4.24, 11.00 am

Official opening: 9.4.24, 6.30 pm

17.7. TO 24.11.24

The Sprengel Museum Hannover is showing a comprehensive cross-section of the artistic portfolio of Czech artist Zbyněk Sekal (1923-1998). His material paintings, objects and drawings internalise the urge to question one's own existence in a constantly changing world: participation and sympathy alternate with excessive demands and scepticism, whereby Sekal's works enable an unclouded human view of the world. The exhibition is being organised in cooperation with Museum Kampa (Prague) and Museum Liaunig (Neuhaus/Suha)

Curator: Alexander Leinemann

Press conference: 16.7.24, 11.00 am

Official opening: 16.7.24, 6.30 pm

17.7. TO 20.10.24

The Sprengel Museum Hannover is presenting two works by the Vienna-based artist Martina Kresta (*1976), which are now part of the collection as a purchase and donation: A large-format backdrop cardboard with spiral-shaped circles that only become visible when exposed to UV light, and a dismantled plan cabinet of the kind often found in creative studios. Kresta deals with questions of transience and confronts her audience with one of the most fundamental questions about our own existence: What are we doing to the time we have been given?

Curator: Alexander Leinemann

Press conference: 16.7.24, 11.00 am

Official opening: 16.7.24, 6.30 pm

THE ADVENTURE OF ABSTRACTION
FROM 23.4.23

Reconstruction of Kurt Schwitters' Merzbau, Photo: Herling/Herling/Werner, Sprengel Museum Hannover

In “The Adventure of Abstraction”, the Sprengel Museum Hannover is showing a significant part of its collection in the museum’s newly fitted rooms. The selection provides an overview of major manifestations of and developments in non-representational art from the beginning of the 20th century to the present day. The starting point and focus of the tour are the reconstructions of El Lissitzky’s “Cabinet of the Abstract” (1927) and Kurt Schwitters’ “Merz Construction” (1933). Both rooms, which previously existed in Hannover, embody influential stages in abstract art and allow the visitor to directly experience the interplay of colour and form.

In addition to outstanding works by Schwitters and Lissitzky, Classical Modernism is represented by works by Piet Mondrian, Hans Arp and Paul Klee, among others. From the post-war period are works by, among others, Willi Baumeister, Pierre Soulages and K.O. Götz. These lead on to contemporary artists, such as Pia Fries, Pippilotti Rist and Wolfgang Tillmans. Awaiting discovery in the 18 rooms of “The Adventure of Abstraction” are a cabinet of graphic works, expansive media artworks and abstract films from the early days of the medium.

ARTISTS IN HANNOVER UNDER NATIONAL SOCIALISM

On the museum’s mezzanine floor, another area opens up that takes a look at Hannover artists and art from 1933 to 1945. Taking nine people as examples and tracing historical events, the exhibition illuminates the situation of art and artists under National Socialism and asks how the political conditions impacted on the institutions and artists’ lives and work, museum staff and collectors. Finally, we investigate the extent to which the Nazi past continues to affect the museum to this day.

Curator of “The Adventure of Abstraction”: Isabel Schulz

Curatorial assistant for “The Adventure of Abstraction”: Julius Osman

ELEMENTARY PARTS. BASIC PARTS OF THE SPRENGEL MUSEUM HANNOVER AND ITS ART
13.4.19 TO 25.2.24

The exhibition ELEMENTARY PARTS poses simple and obvious questions about art that nevertheless prove to be absolutely fundamental: What is art? What are works of art actually made of, which materials are used? Which formal languages do they employ? Which reality (or realities) do they refer to between the figurative, the abstract and the virtual? What is art about, what kind of narratives does it tell, and how does it reflect history? In nine themed rooms, the exhibition unfolds an impressive spectrum of the fundamental possibilities of the material, formal and expressive languages of art and its levels of meaning.

The main topics are colour, material, form/shape, realities, history/narratives, natural and human shaped spaces, strong emotions and finally faces, which ultimately reflect our image of human kind. The exhibition brings together a total of more than 150 works from painting, sculpture, drawing, graphic art and film/video (installation) – all part of the Sprengel Museum Hannover’s collection or on permanent loan. They cover a period stretching from the dawn of Modern Art at the beginning of the 20th century to the immediate present. The selection ranges from Max Beckmann, Pablo Picasso, Fernand Léger and Paul Klee via Louise Bourgeois, Sean Scully, Timm Ulrichs, Niki de Saint Phalle and Gerhard Richter to Marlene Dumas, Andrea Fraser, Bruce Nauman, Julian Charrière, Julius von Bismarck, Christoph Girardet and Julia Schmid.

At the beginning of the exhibition, a further room is dedicated to the Sprengel Museum Hannover itself, thematising the basic elements that make up the institution: What is the legal basis for relations between the museum and its sponsors, donors, (permanent) lenders and partners? What collections does it consist of? What departments are there and what are they each responsible for?

With ELEMENTARY PARTS, the Sprengel Museum Hannover is celebrating both the 50th anniversary of the donation of Bernhard and Margrit Sprengel and the 40th year of the museum’s existence.