Klimt Color Enigma and AI at Deutsches Museum Bonn in Germany

On Slow Art Day 2026, the Deutsches Museum Bonn in Bonn, Germany, welcomed visitors for their second annual Slow Art Day event. Curator Tanja Löschner, alongside hosts Luise Gottfriedsen and Maxim Frick, invited participants to explore “The Klimt Color Enigma,” an experience focused on Gustav Klimt’s Faculty Paintings. The event encouraged guests to view the black and white versions of these destroyed works before experiencing their recolored interpretations (love that!).

The event began in the AI Cabinet of the Deutsches Museum Bonn, where attendees gathered to look at three of Gustav Klimt’s Faculty Paintings. The originals were destroyed when retreating Nazi SS troops deliberately set fire to Immendorf Castle in Austria on May 8, 1945, an act of needless destruction on the very day the war in Europe ended and their genocidal regime fell.

Participants were first invited to examine the black and white photos, taken before the war, allowing their imaginations to consider what colors might have originally adorned the Sphinx or the walls in the Jurisprudence building. This slow looking process encouraged a deep, personal connection with the art, prompting reflection on the lost vibrancy of the paintings.

Following this exercise, the hosts revealed the recolored versions of the paintings, brought to life through artificial intelligence, a computer scientist, and an art historian.

This allowed visitors to compare their mental images with the AI-generated interpretations. No specific prompts were used, but participants were encouraged to simply look.

Comfortable seating and yoga mats were provided in the Cabinet, contributing to a slow experience.

Approximately 30 people attended. We at Slow Art Day HQ are glad to see the smiles and joy this art experience brought modern visitors deprived of looking at the originals.

We at Slow Art Day HQ are grateful to Tanja Löschner, Luise Gottfriedsen, Maxim Frick, and the Deutsches Museum Bonn for their continued dedication to fostering slow art experiences. And, in this case, we are deeply appreciative of their efforts to bring these important works, destroyed decades ago, back to life for people today.

We look forward to seeing what wonderful design they come up with for Slow Art Day 2027.

— Ashley, Johanna, Jessica Jane, and Phyl

P.S.:

Learn more about Deutsches Museum Bonn on their website and Instagram.