Potsdam, Germany’s new art museum opened January 23, 2017, after hosting a preview for dignataries including Chancellor Angela Merkel and Bill Gates. Under Director Dr. Ortrud Westheider, the Museum Barberini will present exhibitions in international partnerships focusing on particular topics, artists and eras. In its opening year the museum will host international projects based on key aspects of the collection of Hasso Plattner, the museum’s benefactor and patron, ranging from Impressionism to Modern Art, and East German art to American Modern Art. The season opens in 2018 with an exhibition on Max Beckmann.

From January 23 to May 28, 2017, Museum Barberini is showing two special exhibitions, allowing visitors a glimpse into its holdings with the display of over 170 works.

Impressionism: The Art of Landscape

January 23–May 28, 2017

Impressionist landscapes were not spontaneous mood paintings but were used by artists as a place to carry out their experiments. These artists liberated landscapes from their historic and symbolic significance. Designed to appeal to all the senses, the exhibition Impressionism: The Art of Landscape is divided into eight themes with 92 works which represent landscape painting as the guiding genre of Impressionism. With works by artists such as Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Gustave Caillebotte the exhibition brings major representatives of Impressionism to Potsdam.

Modern Art Classics: Liebermann, Munch, Nolde, Kandinsky

January 23–May 28, 2017

The term modern art embodies change, while classic stands for timelessness. The exhibition Modern Art Classics: Liebermann, Munch, Nolde, Kandinsky draws a line from German Impressionism to Fauvism and Abstract Art after 1945 and addresses this dynamic era. With over 60 works, it recounts Art Stories which reveal that modern art has more than one story to tell.

From Hopper to Rothko: America’s Road to Modern Art

June 17–October 3, 2017

The summer exhibition focuses on the development of American art from Impressionism to Abstract Expressionism represented by masterpieces from The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C., America's first museum of modern art.

Behind the Mask: Artists in the GDR

October 28, 2017–February 11, 2018

The exhibition explores the various ways East German artists walked the fine line between their position as role models and their withdrawal from society, and between the collectivism prescribed by the state and their own creative individuality.

Max Beckmann: World Theater

February 23–June 10, 2018

Max Beckmann (1884–1950) was fascinated by the world of the theater, the circus, and music halls as metaphorical settings for human relationships and world affairs. In his oeuvre one finds numerous paintings, prints, drawings, and sculptures which allude directly to these subject areas and convey his idea of the world as a stage.

This exhibition is held in cooperation with the Kunsthalle Bremen, where it will be on display from September 30, 2017 to February 4, 2018.