Vivre en liberté – Harald Duwe zum 100. Geburtstag

In the organizer's words:

To mark the 100th birthday of Harald Duwe, PARABEL. Center for Art in Hamburg is dedicating a comprehensive retrospective to the painter and graphic artist. The exhibition invites visitors to rediscover an artist who accompanied the 20th century with an alert eye and reflected it vividly in his work.

Harald Duwe saw himself as a realist. His art is based on precise observation and a direct examination of visible reality. In his paintings and graphic works, he focused on social life after 1945: on people in their homes and in public spaces, on work, leisure and consumption. Time and again, political tensions, social contrasts and the increasingly ruthless treatment of the environment and living space come to the fore. Duwe's pictures are not loud, but concentrated. They pose questions about responsibility, individual freedom and the role of the individual within social structures, precisely, clearly and without embellishment.

The retrospective brings together central groups of works from all creative phases. On display are self-portraits and portraits, cityscapes and works on political and social hotspots of the post-war period. Motifs from Hamburg stand alongside scenes from Paris and New York. This opens up the view beyond the regional and shows Duwe as an artist who always thought of his subjects in a wider context.

Even today, his works are remarkably topical. Many of the questions that Duwe formulated decades ago have a direct impact on our present day. The exhibition makes this connection visible and invites visitors to re-read his work as an artistic chronicle of the 20th century and as a powerful examination of life in freedom.

Duration: 27.02.2026 - 17.5.2026

Opening hours: Friday: 14:00 - 18:00, Saturday: 11:00 - 18:00, Sunday: 11:00 - 18:00

Location: Parabel. Center for Art in Hamburg | Fuhlsbüttler Strasse 656, 22337 Hamburg

Note: Due to the historical architecture, the Parabel is unfortunately not barrier-free accessible