The German pavilion houses Germany's national representation during the

Venice Biennale The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...

arts festivals.

Background

Organization and building

Architect Daniele Donghi designed the pavilion in a

neoclassical style Neoclassicism, also spelled Neo-classicism, emerged as a Western cultural movement in the decorative and visual arts, literature, theatre, music, and architecture that drew inspiration from the art and culture of classical antiquity. Neoclassici ...

. It was built in 1909 and originally displayed

Munich Secession The Munich Secession (German language, German Münchener Secession) was an association of visual artists who broke away from the mainstream Munich Artists' Association in 1892, to promote and defend their art in the face of what they considered ...

works. The building was torn down and rebuilt by Ernst Haiger's design in 1938. The commissioner for the German contribution to Biennial is the

Federal Foreign Office The Federal Foreign Office (, ; abbreviated AA) is the Foreign minister, foreign ministry of the Federal Republic of Germany, a federal agency (Germany), federal agency responsible for both the country's foreign policy and its relationship with ...

. On the recommendation of an advisory committee of museum directors and art experts, the ministry appoints a curator (formerly called a commissioner) responsible for the selection of the artists and the organisation of the contribution. This appointment is usually for two years in succession. The Sparkassen-Kulturfonds (culture fund) of the

Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband The Deutscher Sparkassen- und Giroverband (DSGV, ) is the association of German savings banks () and the apex entity of the Sparkassen-Finanzgruppe, the European Union's second-largest financial services group (after BNP Paribas) with 2.5 trillio ...

is the pavilion's main sponsor. The

Goethe-Institut The Goethe-Institut (; GI, ''Goethe Institute'') is a Nonprofit organization, nonprofit German culture, cultural organization operational worldwide with more than 150 cultural centres, promoting the study of the German language abroad and en ...

and, since 2013, the ''ifa Friends of the German Pavilion'' are also funders.Gareth Harris (May 15, 2013)
Down but not out, European countries invest in Venice Biennale pavilions
''

The Art Newspaper ''The Art Newspaper'' is a monthly print publication, with daily updates online, founded in 1990 and based in London and New York City. It covers news of the visual arts as they are affected by international politics and economics, developments i ...

''. From 1982 until 1990 the

German Democratic Republic East Germany, officially known as the German Democratic Republic (GDR), was a country in Central Europe from Foundation of East Germany, its formation on 7 October 1949 until German reunification, its reunification with West Germany (FRG) on ...

organized its own exhibitions in the former Pavilion of Decorative Art. Germany's pavilion was redesigned by Ernst Haiger and inaugurated in 1938 by the ruling

Nazi government The government of Nazi Germany was a totalitarian dictatorship governed by Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party according to the . Nazi Germany was established in January 1933 with the appointment of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor of Germany, followed ...

, a fact that has inspired artistic responses from some presenters. At the 1993 Biennale, Germany's exhibition "Germania" by Hans Haacke involved destroying the Nazi era marble floor of the German pavilion.

Representation by year

Art

* 1950 —

Der Blaue Reiter ''Der Blaue Reiter'' (''The Blue Rider'') was a group of artists and a designation by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc for their exhibition and publication activities, in which both artists acted as sole editors in the almanac of the same name ...

(Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1952 —

Die Brücke Die Brücke (The Bridge), also known as Künstlergruppe Brücke or KG Brücke, was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905. The founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, and Karl Schmidt-R ...

(Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1954 — Heinz Battke, Leo Cremer, Edgar Ende,

Paul Klee Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...

, Karl Kunz,

Oskar Schlemmer Oskar Schlemmer (; 4 September 1888 – 13 April 1943) was a German painter, sculptor, designer and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus school. In 1923, he was hired as Master of Form at the Bauhaus theatre workshop, after working at the ...

Rudolf Schlichter Rudolf Schlichter (or Rudolph Schlichter) (December 6, 1890 – May 3, 1955) was a German painter, engraver and writer. He was one of the most important representatives of the critical-realistic style of verism within the New Objectivity movement ...

, Hans Uhlmann, Mac Zimmermann (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1958 —

Karl Otto Götz Karl Otto Götz (22 February 1914 – 19 August 2017), often simply called K.O. Götz, was a German artist, filmmaker, Drawing, draughtsman, printmaker, writer and professor of art at the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He was one of the oldest livin ...

, Fred Thieler, :de:Julius Bissier, Rolf Cavael, Werner Gilles, ,

Wassily Kandinsky Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky ( – 13 December 1944) was a Russian painter and art theorist. Kandinsky is generally credited as one of the pioneers of abstract art, abstraction in western art. Born in Moscow, he spent his childhood in ...

, Heinrich Kirchner,

Fritz Koenig Fritz Koenig (; 20 June 1924 – 22 February 2017) was a German sculptor, considered one of the most important international German sculpture, sculptors of the 20th century. Koenig's main work and most famous work is ''The Sphere''. The wor ...

, Hans Mettel,

Otto Pankok Otto Pankok (6 June 1893 – 10 October 1966) was a German painter, printmaker, and sculptor. Biography Pankok was born in Mülheim on the Ruhr. In 1912 he began his formal training as an artist at the Art Academies in Düsseldorf and Weima ...

, Hans Platschek, E. Andreas Rauch,

Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Karl Schmidt-Rottluff (Karl Schmidt until 1905; 1 December 1884 – 10 August 1976) was a German expressionist painter and printmaker; he was one of the four founders of the artist group Die Brücke. Life and work Schmidt-Rottluff was born in R ...

, Johanna Schütz-Wolff,

Emil Schumacher Emil Schumacher (29 August 1912 in Hagen, Westfalen – 4 October 1999 in San José, Ibiza) was a German painter. He was an important representative of abstract expressionism in post-war Germany. In 2009 the Kunstquartier Hagen was inaugura ...

, K.R.H. Sonderborg, Wilhelm Wessel, Hans Wimmer (Curator: Eberhard Hanfstaengl) * 1960 —

Willi Baumeister Willi Baumeister (22 January 1889 – 31 August 1955) was a German painter, scenic designer, art professor, and typographer. His work was part of the art competitions at the 1928 Summer Olympics and the 1932 Summer Olympics. Life Born in S ...

, Julius Bissier, Emil Cimiotti, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Rupert Stöckl, Werner Schreib, Ernst Weiers (Kurator Konrad Röthel) * 1962 —

Werner Gilles Werner Gilles (29 August 1894 – 23 June 1961) was a German artist. Gilles was born in Rheydt/Rheinland (today Mönchengladbach) He found his artistic calling while at the academies of Kassel and Weimar, studying under Lyonel Feininger of the B ...

HAP Grieshaber Helmut Andreas Paul Grieshaber or HAP Grieshaber (15 February 1909 – 12 May 1981) was a German artist. His preferred medium was large format woodcuts. Biography Grieshaber was born in Rot an der Rot. He went to school in Nagold and later in R ...

Erich Heckel Erich Heckel (31 July 1883 – 27 January 1970) was a German people, German Painting, painter and printmaker, and a founding member of the group ''Die Brücke'' ("The Bridge") which existed 1905–1913. His work was part of the art competition ...

, Alfred Lörcher, Brigitte Meier-Denninghoff,

(Curator: Konrad Röthel) * 1964 —

Joseph Fassbender Joseph Fassbender (Faßbender) (14 April 1903 in Cologne – 5 January 1974 in Cologne) was a German painter and draughtsman. Life and art During the 1920s Fassbender was trained in painting by Richard Seewald at the Kölner Werkschulen. Sin ...

Norbert Kricke Norbert Kricke (30 November 1922 – 28 June 1984) was a German sculptor. Born in Düsseldorf, Kricke was a student of Richard Scheibe and Hans Uhlmann at the Hochschule für Bildende Künste in Berlin. He started creating abstract sculptures from ...

(Commissioner:

Eduard Trier Eduard Trier (4 January 1920 - 27 June 2009) was a German art historian, exhibition curator and academic. From 1965 to 1972 he was director of the Kunstakademie Düsseldorf. He also wrote several pieces on modern art. Career He was born in Colo ...

) * 1966 —

Horst Antes Horst Antes (born 28 October 1936 Heppenheim, Germany) is a German artist and sculptor. Early life and education After his Abitur, he studied from 1957 to 1959 under the important woodcutter HAP Grieshaber at the Akademie der Bildenden Kün ...

, Günter Haese, Ferdinand Ris (Commissioner: Eduard Trier) * 1968 —

Horst Janssen Horst Janssen (14 November 192931 August 1995) was a German draftsman, printmaker, poster artist and illustrator. He had a prolific output of drawings, etchings, woodcuts, lithographs and wood engravings. Janssen was a student of Alfred Mahlau a ...

, Richard Oelze (Commissioner: Alfred Hentzen) * 1970 — Kaspar-Thomas Lenk,

Heinz Mack Heinz Mack (born 8 March 1931) is a German artist. Together with Otto Piene he founded the Zero (art), ZERO movement in 1957. He exhibited works at documenta in 1964 and 1977 and he represented Germany at the 1970 Venice Biennale. He is best k ...

Georg Karl Pfahler Georg Karl Pfahler (8 October 1926 – 6 January 2002) was the first German people, German hard edge painter, printmaker and sculptor, and one of the leading proponents of post-war color field painting in Germany and Europe. Biography After en ...

Günther Uecker Günther Uecker (; 13 March 1930 – 10 June 2025) was a German painter, sculptor, op artist, and installation artist. He became known primarily for his nail reliefs. In 1961, Uecker joined the Zero (art), ZERO group. Early life and education ...

(Commissioner: Dieter Honisch) * 1972 —

Gerhard Richter Gerhard Richter (; born 9 February 1932) is a German visual artist. Richter has produced Abstract art, abstract as well as photorealistic paintings, photographs and Glass art, glass pieces. He is widely regarded as one of the most important con ...

(Commissioner: Dieter Honisch) * 1976 —

Joseph Beuys Joseph Heinrich Beuys ( ; ; 12 May 1921 – 23 January 1986) was a German artist, teacher, performance artist, and Aesthetics, art theorist whose work reflected concepts of humanism and sociology. With Heinrich Böll, , Caroline Tisdall, Rober ...

Jochen Gerz Jochen Gerz (born 4 April 1940) is a German conceptual artist who lived in France from 1966 to 2007. His work involves the relationship between art and life, history and memory, and deals with concepts such as culture, society, public space, parti ...

, (Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz) * 1978 — Dieter Krieg,

Ulrich Rückriem Ulrich Rückriem (born 30 September 1938) is a German sculptor notable for his monumental stone sculptures. He lives and works in Cologne and London. His abstract works of art are often assigned to the style of minimalism and process art. Life ...

(Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz) * 1980 —

Georg Baselitz Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German Painting, painter, Sculpture, sculptor and Graphic arts, graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his Figurative art, figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his ...

Anselm Kiefer Anselm Kiefer (born 8 March 1945) is a German painter and sculptor. He studied with Peter Dreher and Horst Antes at the end of the 1960s. His works incorporate materials such as straw, ash, clay, lead, and shellac. The poems of Paul Celan h ...

(Commissioner: Klaus Gallwitz) * 1982 —

Hanne Darboven Hanne Darboven (29 April 1941 – 9 March 2009) was a German conceptual artist, best known for her large-scale minimalist installations consisting of handwritten tables of numbers. Early life and career Darboven was born in 1941 in Munich. She ...

Gotthard Graubner Gotthard Graubner (13 June 1930 – 24 May 2013) was a German painter, born in Erlbach, in Saxony, Germany. Graubner studied at the Academy of Arts, Berlin, the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts and the Düsseldorf Academy of Arts in Germany, bef ...

Wolfgang Laib Wolfgang Laib (born 25 March 1950 in Metzingen, Germany) is a German artist, predominantly known as a sculptor. He lives and works in a small village in southern Germany, maintaining studios in New York and South India. His work has been exhibit ...

(Commissioner: Johannes Cladders) * 1984 —

Lothar Baumgarten Lothar Baumgarten (5 October 1944 – 2 December 2018) was a German conceptual artist, based in New York and Berlin. His work includes installation and also film. Early life and education Born 1944 in Rheinsberg, Germany, Baumgarten attended ...

A. R. Penck Ralf Winkler, alias A. R. Penck, who also used the pseudonyms ''Mike Hammer'', ''T. M.'', ''Mickey Spilane'', ''Theodor Marx'', "''a. Y.''" or just "''Y''" (5 October 1939 – 2 May 2017) was a German painter, printmaker, sculptor ...

(Commissioner: Johannes Cladders) * 1986 —

Sigmar Polke Sigmar Polke (13 February 1941 – 10 June 2010) was a German painter and photographer. Polke experimented with a wide range of styles, subject matters and materials. In the 1970s, he concentrated on photography, returning to paint in the 1980s, ...

(Commissioner: Dierk Stemmler) * 1988 — (Commissioner: Dierk Stemmler) * 1990 —

Bernd and Hilla Becher Bernhard "Bernd" Becher (; 20 August 1931 – 22 June 2007), and Hilla Becher, née Wobeser (2 September 1934 – 10 October 2015), were German conceptual artists and photographers working as a collaborative duo. They are best known for their e ...

, (Commissioner: Klaus Bußmann) * 1993 —

Hans Haacke Hans Haacke (born August 12, 1936) is a German-born artist who lives and works in New York City. Haacke is considered a "leading exponent" of institutional critique, and is considered to be the most harsh and consistent critic of museums among t ...

Nam June Paik Nam June Paik (; July 20, 1932 – January 29, 2006) was a South Korean artist. He worked with a variety of media and is considered to be the founder of video art. He is credited with the first use (1974) of the term "electronic super highway" ...

(Commissioner: Klaus Bußmann) * 1995 —

Katharina Fritsch Katharina Fritsch (born 14 February 1956) is a German sculptor."Katharina Fritsch: Arti ...

, Martin Honert,

Thomas Ruff Thomas Ruff (born 10 February 1958) is a German photographer who lives and works in Düsseldorf, Germany. He has been described as "a master of edited and reimagined images". Ruff shares a studio on Düsseldorf's Hansaallee, with fellow German ...

(Commissioner:

Jean-Christophe Ammann Jean-Christophe Ammann (14 January 1939 – 13 September 2015) was a Swiss art historian and curator. Early life and education Born in Berlin, Ammann, son of a chemist, grew up in a German-speaking family in Fribourg. He actually wanted to become ...

) * 1997 — ,

Katharina Sieverding Katharina Sieverding (born 16 November 1941) is a German photographer known for her self-portraiture. Sieverding lives and works in Berlin and Düsseldorf. She is a professor emeritus at the University of the Arts, Berlin. Early life and educati ...

(Commissioner: Gudrun Inboden) * 1999 —

Rosemarie Trockel Rosemarie Trockel (born 13 November 1952) is a German conceptual artist. She has made drawings, paintings, sculptures, videos and installations, and has worked in mixed media. From 1985, she made pictures using knitting-machines. She is a pro ...

(Commissioner: Gudrun Inboden) * 2001 —

Gregor Schneider Gregor Schneider (born 1969 in Rheydt) is a German artist. His projects have proven controversial and provoked intense discussions. In 2001, he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale for his infamous work ''Totes Haus u r'' exhibited ...

(Commissioner: Udo Kittelmann) * 2003 —

Candida Höfer Candida Höfer (born 4 February 1944) is a German photographer. She is a renowned photographer known for her exploration of public spaces and architecture. In her career she transitioned from portraiture to focusing on spaces like libraries and m ...

Martin Kippenberger Martin Kippenberger (25 February 1953 – 7 March 1997) was a German painter, draftsman, photographer, sculptor, installation and performance artist. He became known for his prolific output in a wide range of styles and media, superfiction, as w ...

(Curator: Julian Heynen) * 2005 —

Thomas Scheibitz Thomas Scheibitz (born 1968 in Radeberg, East Germany) is a German painter and sculptor. Together with Tino Sehgal he created the German pavilion on the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005. He lives and works in Berlin. Life and work The son of an East ...

Tino Sehgal Tino Sehgal (; ; born 1976) is an artist of German and Indian descent, based in Berlin, who describes his work as "constructed situations". He is also thought of as a choreographer who makes dance for the museum setting. Personal life Sehgal was ...

(Curator: Julian Heynen) * 2007 —

Isa Genzken Isa Genzken (born 27 November 1948) is a German artist who lives and works in Berlin. Her primary media are sculpture and installation, using a wide variety of materials, including concrete, plaster, wood and textile. She also works with photograp ...

(Curator:

Nicolaus Schafhausen Nicolaus Schafhausen (born 1965) is a German curator, director, author, and editor of numerous publications on contemporary art. Since 2012 he has been the Strategic Director of Fogo Island Arts, an initiative of the Canadian Shorefast Foundation t ...

) * 2009 —

Liam Gillick Liam Gillick (born 1964) is a British artist. In the 1990s he was one of the informal Young British Artists group; like many of them, he took a degree in fine art from Goldsmiths' College, in London. He was among the artists included in the ...

(Curator:

) * 2011 —

Christoph Schlingensief Christoph Maria Schlingensief (24 October 1960 – 21 August 2010) was a German theatre director, performance artist, and filmmaker. Starting as an independent underground filmmaker, Schlingensief later staged productions for theatres and festiva ...

(Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer) * 2013 —

Ai Weiwei Ai Weiwei ( ; , IPA: ; born 28 August 1957) is a Chinese contemporary artist, documentarian, and activist. Ai grew up in the far northwest of China, where he lived under harsh conditions due to his father's exile. As an activist, he has been ...

Romuald Karmakar Romuald Karmakar (born February 15, 1965) is a French film director, screenwriter and producer. He was born in Wiesbaden, Germany as the son of an Indian father of Bengali descent and a French mother. From 1977 to 1982 he lived in Athens. He has ...

Santu Mofokeng Santu Mofokeng (October 19, 1956 – January 26, 2020) was a South African news and documentary photographer who worked under the alias ''Mofokengâ''. Mofokeng was a member of the Afrapix collective and won a Prince Claus Award.Prince Claus Fun ...

Dayanita Singh Dayanita Singh (born 18 March 1961) is an Indian photographer whose primary format is the book. She has published fourteen books. Singh's art reflects and expands on the ways in which people relate to photographic images. Her later works, draw ...

(Curator: Susanne Gaensheimer) xhibition was held at the French pavilion* 2015 — Tobias Zielony,

Hito Steyerl Hito Steyerl (born 1 January 1966) is a German filmmaker, moving image visual artist, artist, writer, and innovator of the essay documentary.Olaf Nicolai, Jasmina Metwaly and Philip Rizk (Curator: Florian Ebner) * 2017 —

Anne Imhof Anne Imhof (born 1978 in Giessen, Germany) is a German visual artist, choreographer, and performance artist who lives and works between Frankfurt and Paris. She is best known for her endurance art, although she cites painting as central to her pr ...

(Curator: Susanne Pfeffer)- (Winner of the Golden Lion for "Best National Participation") * 2019 —

Natascha Sadr Haghighian Natascha Sadr Haghighian is an artist known for assuming multiple identities. Her official press releases and gallery biographies conflict on country of origin, date of birth, and place of residence. Her work is primarily concerned with investiga ...

(Curator: Franciska Zólyom) * 2022 —

Maria Eichhorn Maria Eichhorn (born 19 November 1962, in Bamberg) is a German artist based in Berlin. She is best known for site-specific works and installations that investigate political and economic systems, often revealing their intrinsic absurdity or the ...

(Curator: ) * 2026 — Henrike Naumann, Sung Tieu (Curator: )

References

Bibliography

* *

External links

* {{Portal bar, Germany, Visual arts National pavilions German contemporary art