The Shape of Freedom: International Abstraction after 1945

4. June – Sep 25, 2022

The exhibition examined the creative interplay between Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel in transatlantic exchange and dialogue, from the mid-1940s to the end of the Cold War.

Following World War II, painting went in completely new directions. A new generation of artists turned their backs on the styles of the interwar period: Instead of figurative representation or geometric abstraction, painters in the orbit of Abstract Expressionism in the US and Art Informel in Western Europe pursued a radically impulsive approach to form, color, and material. As an expression of individual freedom, the spontaneous painterly gesture gained symbolic significance. Large-scale color-field paintings created a meditative space for ruminating the fundamental questions of human existence.

#AbstraktionBarberini

The role of the artist, of course, has always been that of image-maker. Different times require different images. ... To my mind certain so-called abstraction is not abstraction at all. On the contrary, it is the realism of our time.

Adolph Gottlieb, 1947

The exhibition included more than ninety works by around fifty artists, amongst them Sam Francis, Helen Frankenthaler, K. O. Götz, Lee Krasner, Georges Mathieu, Joan Mitchell, Ernst Wilhelm Nay, Barnett Newman, Jackson Pollock, Judit Reigl, Mark Rothko, and Clyfford Still. The over thirty international lenders included the Centre Pompidou in Paris, the Tate in London, the Museo nacional Thyssen-Bornemisza in Madrid, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Museum Frieder Burda in Baden-Baden, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice.

The exhibition was organized by the Museum Barberini, Potsdam, the Albertina Modern, Vienna, and the Munchmuseet, Oslo, curated by Daniel Zamani. With generous support from the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Genève.

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Reviews

"Potsdam's Museum Barberini dares to go big, curated as boldly as it is captivatingly by the young art historian Daniel Zamani. (...) a show of superlatives."

Berliner Zeitung

“The Museum Barberini intelligently explores the creative interplay between Abstract Expressionism and Art Informel”

Weltkunst

“An epoch-making exhibition”

WELT am Sonntag

"Such a broad overview has not been seen in a long time. Eloquent, opulent, and of the highest caliber"

Kunstforum international

“Powerful, tender, and beguiling pictures without heroes or clear contours—at the Barberini, abstractions from America and Western Europe from the period after 1945 are on view, the search for meaning at its best. (...) It’s hard to pull yourself away from this sheer size, these brilliant colors, and the power of the images.”

Märkische Allgemeine Zeitung

“The overview at the Museum Barberini has the great merit of presenting a remarkable number of women artists whose contribution to the art of the postwar period has not yet been acknowledged. In this respect, the Potsdam museum sets a strong accent that can no longer be passed over.”

Der Tagesspiegel

“Painting becomes the experience of an inner expanse. In the face of the abyss of the twentieth century, this intense exhibition invokes the existential meaning of art — as the shape of freedom.”

Deutschlandfunk Kultur

“A transatlantic dialogue and a visual feast with iconic paintings like those of Jackson Pollock. (...) Almost nowhere else on our continent will you find such a broad spectrum of abstract painting from America and Europe, all in one place.”

rbb Inforadio

“A fantastic overview of various kinds of abstract art after 1945. (...) Even as a visitor from 2022, you can sense how many new things were possible after 1945”

radioeins

“The Shape of Freedom is a show that questions national attributions and the genial worship of heroes, reveals cross-connections—and whose power of color and stylistic diversity are simply overwhelming.”

Potsdamer Neueste Nachrichten

“An exciting and informative encounter of transatlantic positions in abstract painting, now continued and deepened in an impressive exhibition at the Museum Barberini in Potsdam”

Berliner Morgenpost

“The ‘universal language of abstraction’ proclaimed by the organizers of documenta in 1959 was not the only language of its time, but it was an incredibly powerful and polyphonic one (...) and one that was spoken by men and women artists alike. The compelling demonstration of this long-denied fact is probably the greatest achievement of the exhibition at the Museum Barberini.”

Der Tagesspiegel

“In its new exhibition, the Museum Barberini travels back in time to abstract painting after World War II—in the United States and Western Europe”

monopol

“That’s the magic of abstract art”

rbb Fernsehen

“This exhibition reveals connections, and it’s really impressive. This exhibition helps you see. (...) It’s really top notch.”

rbb Kultur

"Great selection of about 100 works (...) The paintings of Pollock, Louis Morris, Sam Francis, Norman Bluhm and also especially women like Joan Mitchell and Helen Frankenthaler jazz, swing, rock in color and rhythm."

tip Berlin