Archistories

Architecture in Art

Staatliche Kunsthalle Karlsruhe
29 November 2025 — 12 April 2026
Opening Friday, 28 November 2025

The special exhibition Archistories: Architecture in Art brings together around 100 works by 70 artists from five centuries that reflect on buildings and construction in different ways. Sometimes playful, sometimes humorous, sometimes socially critical, the works on display deal with the realities of life, past times, or fantastical spaces. They all show how we shape our world or could shape it in the future. In doing so, the exhibition explores aesthetic, political, social, and ecological questions.

Paintings, drawings, prints, and sculptures from the Kunsthalle’s collection are complemented by video works, photographs, and installations by contemporary artists. Archistories thus provides a comprehensive insight into the history of architecture from the 17th century to the present day and makes it clear that architecture always tells stories and recounts history.

An extensive catalog accompanying the exhibition is now available for €48 in the Kunsthalle’s online shop.

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Exhibiting artists

Franz Ackermann – Nevin Aladağ – Johann Wilhelm Baur – Samuel Beckett – Jean-Jacques de Boissieu – Stephen Craig – Nicolas Daubanes – Robert Delaunay – Alain Delorme – Rudolf Dischinger – Otto Dix – Louis Ducros – Josef Wilhelm Durm – Elger Esser – Lyonel Feininger – Günther Förg – Carl Ludwig Frommel – Giuseppe Galli da Bibiena – Armin Goeck – Vincent van Gogh – Niklas Goldbach – Laurent Goldring – Dionisio González – George Grosz – Beate Gütschow – Henri Joseph Harpignies – Erich Heckel – Candida Höfer – Judith Hopf – Karl Hubbuch – Heinrich Hübsch – Victor Hugo – Alexander Kanoldt – Hubert Kiecol – Barbara Klemm – Fritz Klemm – Günther Knipp – Jochen Kuhn – Wolfgang Laib – Fernand Léger – Nicolas François Daniel Lhuillier – Axel Lieber – Johannes Lingelbach – Claude Lorrain – Albert Marquet – Isa Melsheimer – Adolph Menzel – Friedrich Mosbrugger – Henrique Oliveira – Julia Oschatz – Johann Andreas Pfeffel – Francesco Piranesi – Giovanni Battista Piranesi – Camille Pissarro – Werner Pokorny – Domenico Quaglio – Hans Peter Reuter – Hubert Robert – Johann Heinrich Roos – Gabriel Jacques de Saint-Aubin – Georg Scholz – Sean Scully – Hermann Sprauer – Erwin Spuler – Jakob Kudsk Steensen – Hito Steyerl – Artur Peter Stoll – Rebecco Ann Tess – Francesco Tironi – Wilhelm Trübner – Hendrick Cornelisz. van Vliet – Friedrich Weinbrenner – Michael Wesely – Helmut Wimmer – Fritz Winter

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