From Odesa to Berlin

The works were brought to safety before the war and are entering into a dialogue with paintings from the Berlin collections in Berlin.

The large special exhibition, which follows a small opening presentation in spring 2024, is an extraordinary cooperation project and is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

Shortly after the start of the Russian war of aggression, the most important works of the Odesa Museum were brought to a Ukrainian emergency camp to protect them.

These are paintings by European painters from the 16th to 19th centuries, including paintings by important artists such as Andreas Achenbach, Francesco Granacci, Frans Hals, Cornelis de Heem, Roelant Savery, Bernardo Strozzi, Alessandro Magnasco and Frits Thaulow.

The Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art, which opened in 1924, houses a broad collection of art and cultural history. This collection is part of Ukraine's cultural identity and has numerous references to Western European collections. Nevertheless, it is little known in Western Europe.

The focused juxtapositions are almost unavoidable. Many works from Odesa were created by masters who were also collected in Berlin, others are linked to works from Berlin through the subject matter. The integration of the Berlin works into the exhibition leads to insightful and surprising "encounters" and enables new insights into cultural-historical contexts.

The exhibition is divided into 9 chapters and begins with an introduction to the project and its contemporary historical context. The following exhibition chapters, which deal with, among other things, the project's history, are a short introduction to the project's history and its contemporary historical context. based on the genres of European art history, reflect the multifaceted nature of the Ukrainian collection, which is little known in Western Europe.

The aim of the special exhibition is to present the works from the Odesa Museum of Western and Eastern Art to a broad audience and to demonstrate Ukraine's connections with Western Europe. It is intended to be a sign of solidarity with Ukraine and to help keep the public's awareness of the ongoing threat in Ukraine alive.

The exhibition "From Odesa to Berlin. European painting from the 16th to the 19th century" is curated by Sabine Lata, research associate at the Gemäldegalerie, and Dagmar Hirschfelder, director of the Gemäldegalerie, and is supervised by the restorers Anja Lindner-Michael and Thuja Seidel.

An illustrated exhibition catalogue will be published to accompany the exhibition.

The exhibition is sponsored by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and the Media.

A special presentation by the Gemäldegalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in cooperation with the Odesa Museum for Western and Eastern Art and the Alte Nationalgalerie of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.