What does art say about childhood? The exhibition "Kinder, Kinder!" at the Bucerius Kunst Forum invites visitors on an impressive journey through five centuries of depictions of children—a look at ideals, role models, and the big question of how our idea of childhood has changed.

The exhibition "Kinder, Kinder!" at the Bucerius Kunst Forum impressively demonstrates how strongly social values are expressed in depictions of children. Spanning five centuries, a multifaceted panorama unfolds: from Renaissance Madonna paintings to contemporary photography and media art. In six chapters, the show presents paintings, works on paper, sculptures, and photographs that continually redefine the image of the child.

The starting point lies in iconic mother-child depictions, which were long regarded as ideal images of family bonds. Around 1500, portraits of children in aristocratic circles served primarily as a means of representation: they were intended to consolidate power and emphasize inheritance claims. Accordingly, children often appear as little adults—in armor, with symbols of power, or in allegorical roles as ancient deities.

View of the exhibition, "Children, Children! Between Representation and Reality" at the Bucerius Kunst Forum Hamburg © Bucerius Kunst Forum Hamburg

This contrasts with depictions of poor children in 17th-century Netherlands and Spain. Although they often show precarious living situations, they surprisingly rarely lack lightheartedness or smiles—an indication that child labor and poverty were viewed differently then than they are today. The change becomes particularly clear in the 17th and 18th centuries, when a new understanding of childhood became established: children were perceived as independent personalities, and the focus shifted to their development, their closeness to nature, their play, and their imagination. The form of remembrance also changed – whereas portraits of deceased children were common in the past, today we capture moments of everyday life and liveliness.

With works by Titian, Anthonis van Dyck, Joshua Reynolds, Gerrit van Honthorst, François Boucher, Paula Modersohn-Becker, Oskar Kokoschka, Gerhard Richter, Rineke Dijkstra, Nobuyoshi Araki, and many others, the exhibition shows how artists have viewed, stylized, and reinvented childhood over the centuries. The result is a multi-layered, touching, and often surprising picture of the most important phase of human life.
November 28, 2025, to April 6, 2026