When spaces become fashion & art – cool exhibitions to see in Berlin at Helmut Newton Foundation

On 4 June 2026, the Helmut Newton Foundation in Berlin opens two new exhibitions: “Rooms / Stages” and “ Helmut Newton’s One-off Album”.  (Photo up – Helmut Newton, Absolut Vodka, Sweden 1995 © Helmut Newton)

“Rooms / Stages” and “Helmut Newton’s One-off Album” – between 5 June – 15 November 2026 / ww.newton-foundation.org
Works by: Helmut Newton, Viktoria Binschtok, Götz Diergarten, Anna Lehmann- Brauns, Jana Sophia Nolle, Julia Peirone, Robert Polidori, Friederike von Rauch, Ricarda Roggan, Georges Rousse, Gregor Schneider, Karen Stuke, Paolo Ventura.

The display… 
Following the major 2019 exhibition Body Performance at the Helmut Newton Foundation, the thematic sequel Rooms / Stages now shifts our attention deliberately from the performative act to the space itself. The front rooms host works by a dozen artists exploring the theme of space and stage, while the main hall features monumental motifs by Helmut Newton dedicated to the same topic. This part of the group show Rooms / Stages leads to the rear exhibition space, where a unique photo album by Newton is presented in Berlin for the first time. This selection also includes images that visualize the transformation of space into a stage.

Rooms / Stages
The artists in this group exhibition are represented by one body of work each. They consciously incorporate the space into their staged portraits, use long exposures to let people or dancers disappear, or focus on deserted interiors – from artists’ own studio, with shifting furniture, to museums in Versailles or Dresden, subway tunnels in Berlin and London, as well as images from dance and theater.
Helmut Newton transformed diverse locations into stages, as the second part of the group exhibition demonstrates. These settings include luxurious hotel rooms and lobbies in Paris, Milan, and New York from his fashion photographs of the 1960s, ‘70s, and ‘80s, and – in a 180-degree turn – raw exterior settings in Monte Carlo, even his own garage. The exhibition presents these interiors from his fashion work alongside several of his theater photographs, such as those produced in 1983 in Wuppertal with Pina Bausch for The New Yorker, or from the mid-1980s for the program booklets of Les Ballets de Monte- Carlo.

Helmut Newton’s One-off Album
The third part of the summer exhibition is devoted to an album assembled by Helmut Newton in 1999 for collector Gert Elfering, now in the Nicola Erni Collection. After having been presented at her collection spaces in Switzerland, the album is now on view in Berlin for the first time. It comprises 103 small-format original prints in black-and-white and color, in various dimensions. Selected by Newton and Elfering, the prints were mounted on card stock and annotated by hand with a title or anecdote.he selection includes iconic fashion photographs as well as never-before-exhibited working shots taken behind the scenes, Polaroids, and advertising images.

Photography: (C) Helmut Newton Foundation