Große Berliner Kunstausstellung (Great Berlin Art Exhibition), abbreviated GroBeKa or GBK, was an annual art exhibition that existed from 1893 to 1969 with intermittent breaks. In 1917 and 1918, during World War I, it was not held in Berlin but in Düsseldorf. In 1919 and 1920, it operated under the name Kunstausstellung Berlin. From 1970 to 1995, the Freie Berliner Kunstausstellung (Free Berlin Art Exhibition) was held annually in its place.
The exhibition
Wilhelminian Era
Until the 1890s, with the exception of the International Art Exhibition of 1891, for more than a hundred years the Fine Arts Section of the Royal Academy of Arts organised and ran the Academic Art Exhibitions. The first Great Berlin Art Exhibition took place in 1893 on the basis of the statutes of a reorganisation of its internal relations, which was approved by Kaiser Wilhelm II. From then on, the entirety of the Berlin artistic community was to take over the art exhibition, represented by the Cooperative of the Members of the Royal Academy of Arts (Genossenschaft der Mitglieder der Königlichen Akademie der Künste) and the Berlin Artist's Association (Verein Berliner Künstler). The Düsseldorf artists' association was also granted a share in the management of the exhibition. On 14 May 1893, the Prussian Minister of Culture opened the first Great Berlin Art Exhibition. This and subsequent exhibitions were held in the Glass Palace, the exhibition building of the State Exhibition Park at Lehrter Bahnhof.
In 1896, to celebrate the bicentenary of the Royal Academy of Arts, the International Art Exhibition and the Berlin Trade Exhibition were held in the exhibition building, the adjacent building and the State Exhibition Park instead of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition.
It is disputed whether in 1898, the jury of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition had rejected the landscape painting Grunewaldsee by the painter Walter Leistikow and whether this had been, among other things, the reason for the founding of the Berlin Secession. In order to raise the long-lamented average standard of this exhibition, the jury had rejected around 1500 works, i.e. one-third of the works submitted. Walter Leistikow's pictures, however, were not affected by this. All of his submitted paintings were accepted.
At the beginning of May 1898, 65 artists founded the Berlin Secession, as a consequence of current and earlier discord with the Verein Berliner Künstler. For the most part, the members did not take part in the Great Berlin Art Exhibition for a while from 1899 onwards and showed their works in a building in Kantstraße in secession-owned exhibitions.
The artist and printmaker Käthe Kollwitz was nominated for a gold medal by the jury of the Great Berlin Art Exhibition for her cycle A Weavers' Revolt, but Kaiser Wilhelm II probably considered the works too socially critical, and he prevented the medal from being awarded in 1898. In 1900, 16 of the 24 works by the sculptor and painter Gustav Eberlein on display, fell victim to censorship and were removed from the exhibition by "the highest instruction", including the works Adam and Eve at the End of Life, The Spirit of Bismarck, and Workers (also Sack Bearers).
In 1905, the Berlin Association of Artists (Werkring) and the Association for House and Apartment Art (Vereinigung für Haus und Wohnungskunst) were represented in the exhibition, and in 1908 the Dresden artists' group Die Elbier. In 1912, the opening speech was given by Max Schlichting, who used the situation to draw attention to artistic freedom: "In contrast to private exhibitions, an exhibition supported by the state has the obligation to promote all artistic endeavors equally, and its assistance is open to anyone who wishes to call upon it for his or her person.
In 1913, on the occasion of the Emperor's jubilee, the exhibition entitled Große Berliner Kunstausstellung zum Regierungsjubiläum Seiner Majestät des Kaisers (Great Berlin Art Exhibition on the Anniversary of the Reign of His Majesty the Emperor) was held. The wish to include the Berlin Secession in this Great Berlin Art Exhibition, with its own jury and halls, was not fulfilled. The Berlin Secession declined the invitation.
As the exhibition building of the Landesausstellungspark was used for military purposes due to the First World War, the Great Berlin Art Exhibition took place in 1915 in the exhibition building at the Palais Arnim of the Royal Academy of Arts on Pariser Platz with a smaller exhibition area. In order to be able to show at least about 600 works, the exhibition was divided into two stages. 300 works were on display during the first half of the exhibition period and 300 more during the second half.