Philipp Franck - See im Grunewald (ca. 1895)

Cornelius Völker (German, 1965) - Bauchnabel (Belly Button) (2006)

Attributed to August Heinrich Riedel (German, 1799–1883)

Le carnaval des élégantes avec Arlequin

Bettina von Arnim — Close Cycle Man (oil on canvas, 1969)

Carl Adolf Senff (German, 1785-1863)

Bildnis einer Italienerin

Tyrolean landscape with Naudersberg Castle, 1847

By Ernst Ferdinand Oehme

The history of art in architecture or „Kunst am Bau“ in Germany dates back to the Weimar Republic and the Roaring Twenties: as a consequence of the dire economic situation of artists after WWI the interior ministry in 1928 decided to stipulate the inclusion of artists in the artistic configuration of public buildings and to allocate a certain amount of the total building sum to art. After WWII and in view of the again often tense financial situation of artists the German parliament rekindled with this kind of cultural sponsorship and in 1950 adopted legislative measures to include art and artists in public projects. Interestingly and basically at the same time the government of the GDR did the same. Seventy years later the Federal Ministry of the Interior took this double anniversary as point of departure for a retrospective view at a long history of art in architecture in both states: alongside a traveling exhibition the Deutscher Kunstverlag in 2020 published the lavishly illustrated catalogue „70 Jahre Kunst am Bau in Deutschland“ that follows the exhibition’s structure and presents art in architecture in a variety of more or less publicly accessible buildings from federal ministries to military facilities. Artworks in the latter context are a particularly interesting feature since they can only rarely be visited by the public at large. In addition the catalogue also provides information about the development of art in architecture in both German states before and after the fall of the Berlin wall and sheds light on how the changing courses of time influenced art in architecture. The result is a comprehensive retrospective that through its multi-perspective view on the topic in both German states addresses differences and similarities and brings to light a rich heritage that is worth discovering!

Selene Thrown Down by Argus by Ferdinand Keller (1886)

Empress Elizabeth of Austria with Loosened Hair, Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1865

Ophelia by Friedrich Heyser

Karl Friedrich Lessing - Landscape with Crows (ca. 1830)

Markus Matthias Krüger (German, 1981) - Großer Wald Unter Schnee (Large Forest in the Snow) (2009)

Max Ernst (1891-1976, German) ~ Le romantisme, 1960

Carl Friedrich Seiffert / "The Blue Grotto on Capri" / 1860 / Alte Nationalgalerie

Dennis Scholl — "I want nothing in return, just the softest little breathless word, I ask of you" (oil on canvas, 2022)