KARL HORST HÖDICKE
030

KÖNIG TELEGRAPHENAMT
16 DECEMBER 2023 – 27 JANUARY 2024

PUBLIC OPENING
15 DECEMBER 2023 | 6–8 PM

We are pleased to announce the opening of KÖNIG TELEGRAPHENAMT, our second exhibition space in Berlin. Adjacent to Museumsinsel and housed within the premises of Telegraphenamt, the new location will present artists from inside and outside the gallery’s roster, alongside group exhibitions. The first exhibition on view will be 030 by Karl Horst Hödicke.

Karl Horst Hödicke Opening at KÖNIG TELEGRAPHENAMT © Image KÖNIG GALERIE

Hödicke is one of the leading figures of German Neo-Expressionism and New Figuration. As a member and co-founder of the Neue Wilde movement, beginning in 1978, he consciously opposed the abstract, minimalist, and conceptualist strategies currently prevalent in much of West Germany at that time. The broad brushstrokes and bold color palette lend his works the feeling of seeing a place through memory – Berlin and its ever-changing urban landscape in particular is a central motif in his work.

It is, therefore, a great opportunity to present Hödicke's biographical connection to the German capital and Berlin's history since the 1980s in the spaces of a historically significant location such as the Telegraphenamt. From the middle of the 19th century, this building housed Germany's central postal and communications center before it opened as the main telegraph office in 1916, with one of the world's largest pneumatic tube systems in its basement. Bombed during the Second World War, the basic structure was preserved and officially operated as the main telegraph office during the GDR until the 1950s. Operations were finally discontinued in 1992 and the building has remained a protected historical site ever since.

From today's perspective, Hödicke's multi-layered work, spanning several decades, can be read as a critical and ironic commentary on the social upheavals and political developments of his time and his adopted home, Berlin.