Long Story Short. An Art History from the Brandhorst Collection from the 1960s to the Present

Press preview: 21 October 2025, 11 a.m.
Opening: 22 October 2025, 7 p.m.
Duration: 23 October 2025 until 31 January 2027

You are warmly invited to a press preview on Tuesday, 21 October 2025, 11 a.m.

Please obtain accreditation by no later than 11 a.m. on October 20, 2025 at presse@museum-brandhorst.de.

Program

Inaugural address | Anton Biebl, Director Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen

Inaugural address | Achim Hochdörfer, Director, Museum Brandhorst
Introduction | Dr. Monika Bayer-Wermuth, Chief Curator, and Lena Tilk, Research Associate

Following the introductions
Opportunity for questions to the curators
Exhibition viewing
Opportunity for film and photo recordings in the exhibition

For the first time since its opening in 2009, Museum Brandhorst is devoting itself with “Long Story Short” to a chronological presentation of its collection. This show brings together nearly eighty works by more than thirty artists from the Brandhorst Collection, including significant recent acquisitions such as Martine Syms’ DED (2021), as well as over 20 works being shown for the first time—among them pieces by Jacqueline Humphries, Laura Owens, and Giulio Paolini.

Art stories

Since its opening, the museum’s holdings have grown from 800 to over 2,000 works of art, weaving together multiple strands from contemporary and recent art. These works provide both focused and wide-ranging insights into artistic production over the past seventy years, especially in Europe and the United States. Rather than attempting to present a purportedly complete history of this period, the exhibition “Long Story Short” strings together selected movements, aesthetic concerns, and artistic positions from the 1960s to today, creating a sequence of individual art histories.

Art as a Mirror of Society

Beyond formal developments and turning points, the exhibition considers how art responds to historical events, social changes, and technological innovations, and how it reflects them in artistic processes. What impact did the postwar economic boom have on artists’ engagement with materials? What did the politicization of society in the 1960s mean for artistic practice? In what ways has digitalization changed the production of art?

From the 1960ies to the Present

Each gallery functions as its own exhibition, narrating a specific art-historical story within the context of its time or focusing on selected groups of work by individual artists. Beginning with the process-oriented material explorations of Arte Povera (featuring works by Jannis Kounellis, Marisa Merz, Mario Merz, and Giulio Paolini) and the formal reduction of Minimalism (such as Richard Tuttle’s playful geometric forms), the exhibition moves through conceptual photography of the late 1970s (Victor Burgin), intense investigations of body, gender, and identity in the 1980s (including Georg Herold and Rosemarie Trockel), and the influential painting discourses of the 1990s (with Charline von Heyl, Albert Oehlen, Laura Owens, and others). The engagement with digital media and technologies—seen in works by Kerstin Brätsch, Mark Leckey, Jacqueline Humphries, and Sondra Perry—reflects one aspect of artistic production today and forms an open-ended conclusion to the exhibition.

The exhibition highlights the diverse forms of expression and aesthetic strategies of art as part of a larger historical fabric. It demonstrates that art does not exist in isolation but is always in exchange with its time—with political, social, and technological developments—reflecting them in a free and manifold way and thus forming an essential part of our society.

Discovering art

The range of exhibits extends from monumental works, such as Mark Leckey’s ten-meter-high inflatable sculpture “Inflatable Felix” (2020)—a pop icon based on the first image ever broadcast on television—to André Cadere’s “Barre de bois rond” (1976), a hand-painted wooden rod just 29 centimeters long that the artist once smuggled into other exhibitions. Between these poles unfolds a panorama of artistic strategies that are as surprising as they are sensually engaging: in her black-and-white film “La conta” (1967), Marisa Merz transforms an everyday kitchen scene into a feminist manifesto; Victor Burgin’s “Zoo 78” (1978) stages divided Berlin as a “city of the mind”; and Jacqueline Humphries’ “Black Light Paintings “(2005) glow in the dark—paintings that become light sources themselves, creating a club-like atmosphere in the museum. Finally, with Martine Syms’ monumental video installation “DED” (2021), a new generation meets the present: her digital avatar traverses an endless landscape of pain, humor, and rebirth—a powerful commentary on body, media, and self-image in the 21st century.

With works by

Kerstin Brätsch, Victor Burgin, André Cadere, DAS INSTITUT (Kerstin Brätsch und Adele Röder), Walter De Maria, Wade Guyton, Georg Herold, Charline von Heyl, Jacqueline Humphries, KAYA (Kerstin Brätsch und Debo Eilers), Jannis Kounellis, Michael Krebber, Louise Lawler, Mark Leckey, Mario Merz, Marisa Merz, Albert Oehlen, Kayode Ojo, Laura Owens, Palermo, Giulio Paolini, Sondra Perry, Sigmar Polke, Seth Price, Amy Sillman, Frank Stella, Martine Syms, Niele Toroni, Rosemarie Trockel, Richard Tuttle, Cy Twombly, Franz West

Concept and Curation

Dr. Monika Bayer-Wermuth, Chief Curator, Museum Brandhorst, and Lena Tilk, Research Associate, Museum Brandhorst

Galleries curated by

Dr. Monika Bayer-Wermuth, Chief Curator, Museum Brandhorst; Franziska Linhardt, Curator, Museum Brandhorst; Benedikt Seerieder, Curator, Museum Brandhorst; Lena Tilk, Research Associate, Museum Brandhorst; and Sabine Weingartner, Guest Curator; with the assistance of Dr. Katharina Fischer, Team Assistant, Museum Brandhorst.

Program

Opening: October 22, 2025

On opening night, DJ Ipek will perform a DJ set and get the audience in the mood for the exhibition with her music. DJ Ipek, a.k.a. Ipek Ipekcioglu, is an internationally successful and award-winning DJ, producer, curator, and queer activist based in Berlin.

Playlist for the Exhibition

Accompanying the exhibition “Long Story Short”, Julia Weigl and Christoph Gröner from Munich International Film Festival have curated a playlist. It takes visitors on a musical journey through seven decades of film history — from “American Graffiti” (1973) and “Dazed and Confused” (1993) to “Lost in Translation” (2003), “Drive” (2011), “Barbie” (2023), and more.

“With this playlist, we were able to combine two of our passions: music and film, especially American cinema. For the exhibition ‘Long Story Short’, we immersed ourselves in seven decades of film history. Which filmmakers challenged our viewing habits, explored new aesthetic and thematic directions? From Jim Jarmusch and Wim Wenders to Paul Thomas Anderson, Sofia Coppola, and Greta Gerwig — their films share a common passion: a love of music and carefully curated soundtracks. With our playlist, we want to present — as a complement to the art history represented in the Brandhorst Collection — a subjective and distinctive musical history of American film from the 1960s to today. With pop classics, punk gems, and provocations. Enjoy listening!”

— Julia Weigl and Christoph Gröner

Long Thursday | until 8 p.m.

Dialogues and themed tours of the exhibitions, creative workshops with artists, as well as drinks and music in the café

Saturday

Activities for children and families, as well as overview tours of the exhibitions in German and English

2 p.m. to 4 p.m. | Kids Factory | Workshops for children and families

2 p.m. | Overview tour in English

2:30 p.m. | Family tour

3:30 p.m. | Overview tour in German

Sunday

Dialogues on art and creative workshops for everyone on 1-Euro Sunday

11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. | pi.lot project | Young art experts present their favorite works | every first Sunday of the month

1 p.m. to 4 p.m. | Art information: Dialogues in the galleries

1 p.m. to 4 p.m. | Open Factory for everyone

Holiday workshops | 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day, on occasion until 6 p.m.

Fall vacation: November 4 to 7, 2025 | ages 12 and up

Easter vacation: March 30 to April 2, 2026 | ages 6 to 12 | April 7 to 10, 2026 | ages 12 and up

Pentecost holidays: May 26 to 29, 2026 | ages 6 to 12 | June 1 to 3, 2026 | ages 12 and up

Summer holidays: August 3 to 7, 2026 | ages 6 to 10 | August 10 to 14, 2026 | ages 8 to 12 | August 17 to 19, 2026 | ages 12 and up

After Work in cooperation with BISS – Bürger in sozialen Schwierigkeiten e.V.

As part of the “After Work” coversational series, we invite guests to talk about selected artworks at Museum Brandhorst. For “Long Story Short”, we welcome vendors of Munich’s street magazine “BISS – Bürger in sozialen Schwierigkeiten”. They will present their favorite works and share what moves them about these pieces. After the joint visit to the exhibition, the dialogue continues in the café. In a relaxed after-work atmosphere, everyone can discuss together what touched or interested them during their encounter with art.

All dates can be found in our calendar on the website.

The exhibition is supported by

PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne e.V.

Allianz, Partner of PIN. Freunde der Pinakothek der Moderne e.V.

We look forward to your coverage.

#MuseumBrandhorst

#LongStoryShort