Caspar David Friedrich : Art for a New Age

This volume commemorates the 250th anniversary of Caspar David Friedrich’s birth. To mark this milestone, several major exhibitions have been organized across institutions in Germany and the United States. The celebration began at the Hamburger Kunsthalle, Germany, on December 15, 2023, with the exhibition Caspar David Friedrich: Art for a New Age and will conclude at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA, in spring 2025 with Caspar David Friedrich: The Soul of Nature.

Accompanying the most comprehensive Friedrich retrospective in years, this catalog reexamines the artist’s groundbreaking work through the lens of contemporary concerns, including the climate crisis and postcolonial discourse. It highlights more than sixty paintings and approximately one hundred drawings. Selected works by Friedrich’s contemporaries—such as August Heinrich, Georg Friedrich Kersting, Ernst Ferdinand Oehme, and Johann Alexander Thiele—are also featured.

The second part of the catalog focuses on the contemporary reception of his art. Through contributions spanning video, photography, and installations, around twenty artists working across various genres and media engage with the Romantic era, its relationship with nature, and Friedrich’s enduring influence.