Haus der Kunst receives grant of 500,000 euros for "Postwar" project

Today, Kulturstiftung des Bundes (Federal Cultural Foundation) announced it will support Haus der Kunst with a major grant of 500,000 euros for the exhibition project "Postwar - Art Between the Pacific and Atlantic, 1945-1965". The grant, the largest of its kind made to the museum by the foundation, will enable Haus der Kunst to undertake a comprehensive art historical research culminating in the opening of the exhibition in fall 2015. As Okwui Enwezor, the director of Haus der Kunst, stated: "We are enormously thrilled by this generous grant, and grateful to members of the board of Kulturstiftung des Bundes for their support of this ambitious project."

The terms postwar, post-colonialism and post-communism describe the ideological conditions under which the world has developed since 1945. As individual subjects of inquiry and analysis they represent a three-part long-term research and exhibition project which will be developed by Haus der Kunst and international institutional partners across eight years of research. The purpose of the research projects is to bring together leading and emerging scholars, historians, artists, curators, theorists, and students to examine the artistic forces and cultural legacies that have shaped the production of art since 1945.

Conceived as an in-depth study of the postwar period, the first iteration of the project "Postwar - Art between the Pacific and Atlantic, 1945-1965," shifts the focus away from the western European vantage point and redirects attention to the polyphonic and multifocal examination of art since 1945. "Postwar" therefore seeks to understand the complex artistic positions that emerged globally in the aftermath of World War II's devastation. Through the vital relationship between art works and artists, produced and understood from the perspectives of international, regional, and local contexts, the research and exhibition will trace artistic developments in the first 20 years after the war by following the sweeping lines of the two oceans across Europe, the Pacific Rim, Africa, the Mediterranean, North America, and South America. By following these lines, "Postwar" straddles continents, political structures, economic patterns, and institutional frameworks.

According to Okwui Enwezor, "The 'Postwar' project is revisionist art history in the best sense of the term; it is a reconsideration and dramatization of the formidable forces of art through the lens of current scholarship. The intention here is to mesh the different forms of knowledge brought together through seminars, colloquia, conferences, publications and exhibitions."

Haus der Kunst will undertake the overall development of the exhibition and assessment of the research with the Centre Pompidou, Paris, and Tate Modern, London.

If you have further questions, please do not hesitate to contact
Elena Heitsch

Stiftung Haus der Kunst München, gemeinnützige Betriebsgesellschaft mbH
Prinzregentenstraße 1
80538 München
Germany
+49 89 211 27-115
+49 89 211 27-157 Fax
presse@hausderkunst.de
www.hausderkunst.de

Direktor und Geschäftsführer: Okwui Enwezor
Kaufmännischer Leiter: Marco Graf von Matuschka
Vorsitzender des Aufsichtsrates: Staatsminister Dr. Wolfgang Heubisch
Handelsregister München: HRB100018
USt-ID: DE811612530