Albertinum. Art from Romanticism to the Present: Reopening June 20, 2010
In 1960, the collection that now makes up the Modern Masters Gallery was separated from the Old Masters Picture Gallery and established as an independent museum. Its 2,500 works dating from the 19th and 20th century are now displayed in the Albertinum. Among its treasures are not only major works by German Romantic painters such as Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Gustav Carus and Ludwig Richter, but also the outstanding collection of works by the likes of Lovis Corinth, Max Slevogt and Max Liebermann.
The history of this museum of modern art is closely associated with the name of the Saxon minister of state Bernhard von Lindenau (1779-1854). Upon his retirement from public service in 1843, he provided significant funds for the purchase of contemporary paintings. On the basis of this tradition, the museum continues to collect 20th-century paintings, with particular emphasis on works by contemporary artists, developing the museum into a gallery of the international avantgarde.
The new exhibition in the Albertinum contains masterpieces by the Romantic painters as well as 20th-century art and contemporary works. Contemporary art enters into an exciting dialogue with the older holdings of the collection. The 21st-century visitor encounters a broad intellectual universe in which the various stylistic periods are presented in unusual proximity, so that they are experienced in a new and different way.
The tour through the exhibition begins with several masterpieces by Caspar David Friedrich, the most important German Romantic artist. It then proceeds in chronological order, featuring further representatives of the Romantic movement (Carl Gustav Carus, Johan Christian Dahl, Ludwig Richter), French and German Impressionists (Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Max Liebermann, Max Slevogt), Expressionists such as Otto Dix and the Brücke artists (Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff) as well as representatives of the Dresden Secession (Bernhard Kretzschmar, Carl Lohse). For the first time a full room is dedicated to each of the artists A. R. Penck and Georg Baselitz. Another new section is that entitled “Art in the divided Germany / Post-1989 art”, in which successive rooms present and compare art from the GDR and the FRG (Werner Tübke, Wolfgang Mattheuer, Sigmar Polke, Günter Fruhtrunk, Norbert Tadeusz) and works by East German and West German artists (Eberhard Havekost, Neo Rauch, Thoralf Knobloch, Johannes Kahrs).
New media are represented in the form of (sound and video) installa¬tions and video films. The tour ends with two halls containing works by Gerhard Richter, which the artist himself designed and for which he has created new works. Occasionally there are surprising encounters with works from the Skulpturensammlung, which is also housed in the Albertinum. The exhibition of the Skulpturensammlung begins with Auguste Rodin and, like the Galerie Neue Meister, it takes the visitor right up to the contemporary era.
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