Color permeates every aspect of our lives, not just aesthetically and perceptually, but also politically and economically. At the dawn of the era of technical reproducibility, more than a century ago, the presence of color grew steadily and exponentially: a veritable invasion of color began – and continues to expand into almost all areas.

With a selection of art and cultural history exhibits spanning over a hundred years, the exhibition focuses on the artistic exploration of the affective and representative power of color. They study early color photography and color film, then the virtuoso use of color by the masters of modernism and the autonomy of color in the early 20th century, and extend to the present.

The exhibition also shows works that use color to interrogate or expose power relations and economic interests and highlights how color is used to enhance language and poetry or to emphasize their absence. In recent years of global migration, artists have used color to represent identity and difference. The exhibition also addresses milestones in cultural history. Take for example the rainbow flag in all its variants or the motif of the title of the exhibition, which shows Willy Brandt ushering in the era of color television in 1967 by pressing the start button – and thus making the Germany a bit more colorful.

Color as program is the first exhibition developed jointly by the entire curatorial team of the Bundeskunsthalle. The resulting diversity of voices resonates with the dazzling and multifaceted nature of the subject.

The free route of the exhibition and the associative approach are a deliberate choice of the curators. Liam Gillick, artist and guest co-curator, has created exhibition architecture that not only frames the works on display, but is itself an installation.

Artists
Etel Adnan, Josef Albers, Rozbeh Asmani, Anna Atkins, Gilbert Baker, Rosa Barba, KP Brehmer, Angela Bulloch, Sophie Calle, Judy Chicago, Claire Fontaine, Geneviève Claisse, Angela de la Cruz, William KL Dickson & William Heise, Sanna Dullaway , Gardar Eide Einarsson, Oskar Fischinger, Carsten Fock, Helen Frankenthaler, Sam Gilliam, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Renée Green, Kapwani Kiwanga, Leo Lionni, Antje Majewski, James Clerk Maxwell & Thomas Sutton, Sarah Morris, Hans Op de Beeck, Blinky Palermo, Jorge Pardo, Adam Pendleton, Amalia Pica, Gerhard Richter, Willem de Rooij, Pamela Rosenkranz, Hans-Albrecht Schilling, Rudolf Steiner, Hito Steyerl, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Do-Van Tran, Franz Erhard Walther, Lawrence Weiner, La Monte Young, Marian Zazeela, Jung Hee Choi

Curatorial team
Eva Kraus, Johanna Adam, Susanne Annen, Miriam Barhoum, Katharina Chrubasik, Susanne Kleine, Agnieszka Lulińska, Henriette Pleiger, Liam Gillick (Co-Kurateur)

Current exhibitions
The brain. In Art & Science (until June 26, 2022)
Simone de Beauvoir and “The Second Sex” (until October 16, 2022)

Coming soon

Identity not proven: New acquisitions in the federal collection (May 7 to October 3, 2022)
Bettina Pouschi. The curve (Summer 2022 on the roof of the Bundeskunsthalle)

Director: Eva Kraus

Press officer: Sven Bergmann, =(c=c.charCodeAt(0)+13)?c:c-26);});return false”>communication [​at​] bundeskunsthalle.de

The Bundeskunsthalle is supported by the Federal Government Commissioner for Culture and Media.