The Deichtorhallen in

Hamburg Hamburg (, ; nds, label=Hamburg German, Low Saxon, Hamborg ), officially the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg (german: Freie und Hansestadt Hamburg; nds, label=Low Saxon, Friee un Hansestadt Hamborg),. is the List of cities in Germany by popul ...

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwee ...

, is one of Europe's largest art centers for

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic ...

and

photography Photography is the art, application, and practice of creating durable images by recording light, either electronically by means of an image sensor, or chemically by means of a light-sensitive material such as photographic film. It is emplo ...

. The two historical buildings dating from 1911 to 1913 are iconic in style, with their open steel-and-glass structures. Their architecture creates a backdrop for spectacular major international exhibitions. In 2003 the southern hall was dedicated to the medium of photography, creating the House of Photography. Since 2011, the two buildings at the interface of Hamburg's Kunstmeile and Hafencity have been supplemented by a satellite in Hamburg's Harburg district, the Sammlung Falckenberg.

History

Between 1911 and 1914, the "''Deichtorhallen''" ("the levee gate halls") were built as market halls on the grounds of the former Berliner Bahnhof railway station, Hamburg's counterpart to Berlin's Hamburger Bahnhof. They constitute one of the few surviving examples of

industrial architecture Industrial architecture is the design and construction of buildings serving industry. Such buildings rose in importance with the Industrial Revolution, starting in Britain, and were some of the pioneering structures of modern architecture. File: ...

from the transitional period between

Art Nouveau Art Nouveau (; ) is an international style of art, architecture, and applied art, especially the decorative arts. The style is known by different names in different languages: in German, in Italian, in Catalan, and also known as the Modern ...

and 20th century styles. The two halls are open steel structures, the northern hall is a longitudinal edifice boasting three naves and a 3,800 m² footprint; the southern hall (1,800 m²) is a building with a

lantern roof A roof lantern is a daylighting architectural element. Architectural lanterns are part of a larger roof and provide natural light into the space or room below. In contemporary use it is an architectural skylight structure. A lantern roof wil ...

. Rupprecht Matthies created two "language cylinders" visitors can walk through for Deichtorplatz, which is also home to a

Richard Serra Richard Serra (born November 2, 1938) is an American artist known for his large-scale sculptures made for site-specific landscape, Urban area, urban, and Architecture, architectural settings. Serra's sculptures are notable for their material q ...

sculpture. In the northern hall, there is a line of neon writing by Mario Merz and a "Blue Disc" by Imi Knoebel. The Körber Foundation gifted the restored Deichtorhallen to the City of Hamburg. In 1989, they were assigned to a

limited liability company A limited liability company (LLC for short) is the US-specific form of a private limited company. It is a business structure that can combine the pass-through taxation of a partnership or sole proprietorship with the limited liability ...

: Deichtorhallen-Ausstellungs GmbH. On 9 November 1989, Deichtorhallen's international art exhibition program opened with the show "''Einleuchten''", curated by Harald Szeemann. Deichtorhallen Hamburg has emerged as an exhibition center for photography and contemporary art with three pillars of activities, three institutions under the single Deichtorhallen brand. Since 2009, Dirk Luckow has been Artistic Director of Deichtorhallen Hamburg.

Exhibitions (selection)

Wolfgang Tillmans Wolfgang Tillmans (born 16 August 1968) is a German photographer. His diverse body of work is distinguished by observation of his surroundings and an ongoing investigation of the photographic medium’s foundations. Tillmans was the first photog ...

(2001) *

Martin Parr Martin Parr (born 23 May 1952) is a British documentary photographer, photojournalist and photobook collector. He is known for his photographic projects that take an intimate, satirical and anthropological look at aspects of modern life, in p ...

(2004) *

Martin Munkácsi Martin Munkácsi (born Mermelstein Márton; 18 May 1896 – 13 July 1963) was a Hungarian photographer who worked in Germany (1928–1934) and the United States, where he was based in New York City. Life and works Munkácsi was a newspaper write ...

(2005) *

Jonathan Meese Jonathan Meese (born January 23, 1970 in Tokyo) is a German painter, sculptor, performance artist and installation artist based in Berlin and Hamburg. Meese's (often multi-media) works include paintings, collages, drawings and writing. He a ...

(2006) *

Georg Baselitz Georg Baselitz (born 23 January 1938) is a German painter, sculptor and graphic artist. In the 1960s he became well known for his figurative, expressive paintings. In 1969 he began painting his subjects upside down in an effort to overcome the ...

(2007) * Erwin Wurm (2007) * Fischli & Weiss (2008) * F. C. Gundlach (2008) *

Lillian Bassman Lillian Bassman (June 15, 1917 – February 13, 2012) was an American photographer and painter. Early life and background Her parents were Jewish intellectuals who emigrated to the United States from Ukraine (then in Russia) in 1905 and settled ...

/ Paul Himmel (2009) *

Herbert Tobias Herbert Tobias (14 December 1924 – 17 August 1982) was a German photographer who first became well known for his fashion photography during the 1950s. His portrait studies, his photographs of Russia during World War II and his homoerotic pictur ...

(2009) *

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

(2009) *

Nobuyoshi Araki is a Japanese photographer and contemporary artist professionally known by the mononym . Known primarily for photography that blends eroticism and bondage in a fine art context, he has published over 500 books.The number depends on such things ...

(2010) * Poul Gernes (2010) * Julia Stoschek Collection (2010) * Gilbert & George (2011) * Marilyn Minter (2011) * Anselm Reyle (2012) *

Horizon Field Hamburg ''Horizon Field Hamburg'', a large-scale art installation by British sculptor Antony Gormley, consisted of a platform suspended by steel cables above the ground in the Hall for Contemporary Art of the Deichtorhallen in Hamburg. It was constr ...

Antony Gormley Sir Antony Mark David Gormley (born 30 August 1950) is a British sculptor. His works include the ''Angel of the North'', a public sculpture in Gateshead in the north of England, commissioned in 1994 and erected in February 1998; '' Another ...

(2012) * Sarah Moon (2015)

References

External links

Official site of Deichtorhallen Hamburg
Culture in Hamburg Buildings and structures in Hamburg-Mitte Museums in Hamburg Art museums established in 1989 Art museums and galleries in Germany 1989 establishments in West Germany Tourist attractions in Hamburg Art Nouveau architecture in Hamburg Art Nouveau retail buildings Commercial buildings completed in 1914 {{Hamburg-struct-stub