STUTTGART.- WÜSTENROT FOUNDATION’S DOCUMENTARY PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS 15
7 February – 7 June 2026, in THE GÄLLERY
External curator: Giulia Cramm Internal coordination: Alena Leinen

The Documentary Photography Awards by the Wüstenrot Foundation are the most important awards of their kind in Germany. Together with the Photographic Collection of the Museum Folkwang in Essen, they have been presented every two years since 1994 including works of young artists from German universities and academies who use contemporary documentary image strategies and forms of representation to question the present.

In the 15th edition of the awards, Nazanin Hafez (*1991), Kristina Lenz (*1992) & Alex Simon Klug (*1991), Malte Uchtmann (*1996) and Hannah Wolf (*1988) are honored. The artists engage in different ways with existing ‘truths’ about the world that affect society and the individual. The documentary strategies and forms used here range from documentary-fictional to AI-generated visual worlds. These are technics that move along the edges of the documentary, touching and oscillating with it, without being documentary photographs in the conventional sense.

»UNORDNUNG« – FOTOSOMMER STUTTGART 2026
18 July – 13 September 2026, in THE GÄLLERY
Curator: Bertram Kaschek

The photo exhibition in THE GÄLLERY shows works by around 20 artists on the theme of “UNORDNUNG” (engl. disorder), which were selected by a top- class jury as part of an international competition. The exhibition theme, which can be interpreted in many ways, raises the question of the extent to which the dissolution of established order can be experienced as a loss or a gain.

Concerto for TV Cello (Nam June Paik 1971), performed von Charlotte Moorman am 6.7.1974 in Köln, fotografiert von Hanns Sohm, Staatsgalerie Stuttgart, Archiv Sohm

BÄNG! RADICAL FEMALE ARTISTS FROM THE SOHM ARCHIVE
10 October 2026 – 31 January 2027, in THE GÄLLERY
Curator: Elke Allgaier

The exhibition presents the art of the ephemeral: Photographs of happenings and actions from the 1960s and 1970s. The focus is on five exceptional artists - Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991), Carolee Schneemann (1939-2019), Yvonne Rainer (b. 1934), Yoko Ono (b. 1933) and Valie Export (b. 1940). The artists are fearless, courageous, uncompromising and inspiring. By addressing fundamental themes such as emancipation, peace, freedom and self- determination in their works, they set sensational accents for the performative art of modernism.

GENERATION 1700. DRAWING AT THE ROYAL ACADEMY IN PARIS
17 April – 30 August 2026, in the Graphic Cabinet
Curators: Nora Sophie Belmadani and Esther Löffelbein

How do you learn to draw the human body? The exhibition “Generation 1700” is dedicated to drawing lessons at the Royal Academy in Paris and shows how some of the most important artists of the French Enlightenment combined their study of anatomy with artistic expression. On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Franco-German friendship, the Staatsgalerie Stuttgart is opening its eyes to an era of profound social upheaval in which drawing itself became a medium of Enlightenment freedom.

EVERYTHING SURREAL?!
4 December 2026 – 11 April 2027, in the Stirling Hall
Curators: Jens Ullner, Dr. Ulrich Pohlmann and Katharina Massing

The exhibition shows around 250 surrealist photographs from the Dietmar Siegert Collection, which the Staatsgalerie was able to acquire in summer 2025 with funds from the Museumsstiftung Baden-Württemberg. The presentation takes place in dialog with around 30 paintings, drawings, sculptures and objects by Salvador Dalí, Joan Miró, René Magritte, Max Ernst, Meret Oppenheim and others from the Staatsgalerie's collection as well as international museums and private collections.