Galerie Neue Meister
Encyclopedia
The Galerie Neue Meister (English: New Masters Gallery) is part of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
(State Art Collections) of Dresden
, Germany
. It is located in the Albertinum
, and owns over 2,500 works from the 19th century to the present.
The Gallery features paintings by numerous major artists, including those of the German Romantic
(Friedrich
, Richter); Impressionism
(Corinth
, Slevogt
); and Expressionism
/New Objectivity
(Nolde
, including his Brücke
works, Dix
). Others include Beckmann
, Gauguin
, Kirchner
, Klee
, Modersohn-Becker
, Monet
, Munch
, and one work by Van Gogh
. There are rooms devoted to Georg Baselitz
, A.R. Penck and Gerhard Richter
. The best-known contemporary artists include Neo Rauch
and Luc Tuymans
.
The Gallery also contains a number of sculptures from the Dresden Sculpture Collection, from eras matching those of the paintings.
. The purchase of contemporary works, creating the "Modern Department", was stepped up in 1843 under Bernhard von Lindenau
, director of the Royal Museums, who personally gave 700 talers each year for this purpose. The Academic Council, responsible for the Gallery and the Academy of Fine Arts, also contributed 50% of the proceeds from its exhibitions towards new purchases. However, these funds were only enough for a limited intake, mostly restricted to German works.
Until 1882 the collection contained only four major works of the German Romantic. It was subsequently expanded under director Karl Woermann. The Gallery first started to buy foreign contemporary works following an international art exhibition in Dresden in 1897.
Under Hans Posse, director from 1910, the Gallery enlarged its collections of German Romanticism, Impressionism, and late 19th century "Civic Realism" (Bürgerlicher Realismus), which are still important today. The Gallery was financially strengthened by the founding of the Dresden Museums Association in 1911 and the Patrons Association in 1917.
In 1931, the Modern Department (the forerunner of the New Masters Gallery) moved into a building on Brühl's Terrace
. The Nazi campaign against "degenerate art
" resulted in the confiscation and sale of 56 major works. In the 1945 bombing of Dresden
, 196 further paintings were destroyed by fire while in a truck.
The present-day New Masters Gallery was founded in 1959, and has been housed in the upper rooms of the Albertinum since 1965. During the GDR era it was able to retrieve a number of works that it had lost.
The Society of Modern Art in Dresden (Gesellschaft für moderne Kunst in Dresden), founded in 1994, raises funds for the purchase of new works and organises permanent loans to the museum. Through its support, more than 30 works have been acquired and several exhibitions funded.
The floods of 2002
made it necessary to renovate the Albertinum and build a new flood-proof depot. The Albertinum reopened in June 2010, since when the Gallery has also had access to the "Salzgasse Wing", whose rooms were once occupied by the Grünes Gewölbe
. Special exhibitions of contemporary art are now held there across a floor space of 13,000 sq. ft.
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden is a cultural institution in Dresden, Germany, owned by the State of Saxony. It belongs to the most renowned and oldest museum institutions in the world, originating from the collections of the Saxon electors in the 16th century .Today, the Dresden State Art...
(State Art Collections) of Dresden
Dresden
Dresden is the capital city of the Free State of Saxony in Germany. It is situated in a valley on the River Elbe, near the Czech border. The Dresden conurbation is part of the Saxon Triangle metropolitan area....
, Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
. It is located in the Albertinum
Albertinum
The Albertinum is a famous fine art museum in Dresden, Germany, close to Brühl's Terrace and the Zwinger.- History :The Albertinum, named after Saxon king Albert, was built between 1884 and 1887 by Carl Adolf Canzler on the site of a former armoury to serve as a public museum and archive...
, and owns over 2,500 works from the 19th century to the present.
German Romanticism
For the general context, see Romanticism.In the philosophy, art, and culture of German-speaking countries, German Romanticism was the dominant movement of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. German Romanticism developed relatively late compared to its English counterpart, coinciding in its...
(Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich
Caspar David Friedrich was a 19th-century German Romantic landscape painter, generally considered the most important German artist of his generation. He is best known for his mid-period allegorical landscapes which typically feature contemplative figures silhouetted against night skies, morning...
, Richter); Impressionism
Impressionism
Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s...
(Corinth
Lovis Corinth
Lovis Corinth was a German painter and printmaker whose mature work realized a synthesis of impressionism and expressionism....
, Slevogt
Max Slevogt
Max Slevogt was a German Impressionist painter and illustrator, best known for his landscapes. He was, together with Lovis Corinth and Max Liebermann, one of the foremost representatives in Germany of the plein air style.-Biography:He was born in Landshut, Germany...
); and Expressionism
Expressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
/New Objectivity
New Objectivity
The New Objectivity is a term used to characterize the attitude of public life in Weimar Germany as well as the art, literature, music, and architecture created to adapt to it...
(Nolde
Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors...
, including his Brücke
Die Brücke
Die Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905, after which the Brücke Museum in Berlin was named. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later members were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller...
works, Dix
Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.-Early life and...
). Others include Beckmann
Max Beckmann
Max Beckmann was a German painter, draftsman, printmaker, sculptor, and writer. Although he is classified as an Expressionist artist, he rejected both the term and the movement...
, Gauguin
Paul Gauguin
Eugène Henri Paul Gauguin was a leading French Post-Impressionist artist. He was an important figure in the Symbolist movement as a painter, sculptor, print-maker, ceramist, and writer...
, Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a...
, Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, Modersohn-Becker
Paula Modersohn-Becker
Paula Modersohn-Becker was a German painter and one of the most important representatives of early expressionism. In a brief career, cut short by an embolism at the age of 31, she created a number of groundbreaking images of great intensity.-Life and work:Paula Becker was born and grew up in...
, Monet
Claude Monet
Claude Monet was a founder of French impressionist painting, and the most consistent and prolific practitioner of the movement's philosophy of expressing one's perceptions before nature, especially as applied to plein-air landscape painting. . Retrieved 6 January 2007...
, Munch
Edvard Munch
Edvard Munch was a Norwegian Symbolist painter, printmaker and an important forerunner of expressionist art. His best-known composition, The Scream, is part of a series The Frieze of Life, in which Munch explored the themes of love, fear, death, melancholia, and anxiety.- Childhood :Edvard Munch...
, and one work by Van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
. There are rooms devoted to Georg Baselitz
Georg Baselitz
Georg Baselitz is a German painter who studied in the former East Germany, before moving to what was then the country of West Germany...
, A.R. Penck and Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter
Gerhard Richter is a German visual artist. Richter has simultaneously produced abstract and photorealistic painted works, as well as photographs and glass pieces, thus undermining the concept of the artist’s obligation to maintain a single cohesive style.- Biography :Gerhard Richter was born in...
. The best-known contemporary artists include Neo Rauch
Neo Rauch
Neo Rauch is a German artist whose paintings mine the intersection of his personal history with the politics of industrial alienation. His work reflects the influence of socialist realism, and owes a debt to Surrealists Giorgio de Chirico and René Magritte, although Rauch hesitates to align...
and Luc Tuymans
Luc Tuymans
Luc Tuymans is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Tuymans is considered one of the most influential painters working today. His signature figurative paintings transform mediated film, television, and print sources into examinations of history and memory.-Life:Tuymans...
.
The Gallery also contains a number of sculptures from the Dresden Sculpture Collection, from eras matching those of the paintings.
History
The collection began as part of the Dresden Painting GalleryGemäldegalerie Alte Meister
The Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Dresden features major works of art. It is located in the gallery wing of the Zwinger....
. The purchase of contemporary works, creating the "Modern Department", was stepped up in 1843 under Bernhard von Lindenau
Bernhard von Lindenau
Baron Bernhard August von Lindenau was a German lawyer, astronomer, politician, and art collector.Lindenau was born in Altenburg, where he also died. In 1830 he was the Minister of the Interior during a turbulent period in the history of Saxony...
, director of the Royal Museums, who personally gave 700 talers each year for this purpose. The Academic Council, responsible for the Gallery and the Academy of Fine Arts, also contributed 50% of the proceeds from its exhibitions towards new purchases. However, these funds were only enough for a limited intake, mostly restricted to German works.
Until 1882 the collection contained only four major works of the German Romantic. It was subsequently expanded under director Karl Woermann. The Gallery first started to buy foreign contemporary works following an international art exhibition in Dresden in 1897.
Under Hans Posse, director from 1910, the Gallery enlarged its collections of German Romanticism, Impressionism, and late 19th century "Civic Realism" (Bürgerlicher Realismus), which are still important today. The Gallery was financially strengthened by the founding of the Dresden Museums Association in 1911 and the Patrons Association in 1917.
In 1931, the Modern Department (the forerunner of the New Masters Gallery) moved into a building on Brühl's Terrace
Brühl's Terrace
Brühl's Terrace is a historic architectural ensemble in Dresden, Germany. Nicknamed "The Balcony of Europe", the terrace stretches high above the shore of the river Elbe in a city which is quite large as measured by area relative to its half a million inhabitants...
. The Nazi campaign against "degenerate art
Degenerate art
Degenerate art is the English translation of the German entartete Kunst, a term adopted by the Nazi regime in Germany to describe virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were...
" resulted in the confiscation and sale of 56 major works. In the 1945 bombing of Dresden
Bombing of Dresden in World War II
The Bombing of Dresden was a military bombing by the British Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force and as part of the Allied forces between 13 February and 15 February 1945 in the Second World War...
, 196 further paintings were destroyed by fire while in a truck.
The present-day New Masters Gallery was founded in 1959, and has been housed in the upper rooms of the Albertinum since 1965. During the GDR era it was able to retrieve a number of works that it had lost.
The Society of Modern Art in Dresden (Gesellschaft für moderne Kunst in Dresden), founded in 1994, raises funds for the purchase of new works and organises permanent loans to the museum. Through its support, more than 30 works have been acquired and several exhibitions funded.
The floods of 2002
2002 European floods
In August 2002 a 100-year flood caused by over a week of continuous heavy rains ravaged Europe, killing dozens, dispossessing thousands, and causing damage of billions of euros in the Czech Republic, Austria, Germany, Slovakia, Poland, Hungary, Romania and Croatia....
made it necessary to renovate the Albertinum and build a new flood-proof depot. The Albertinum reopened in June 2010, since when the Gallery has also had access to the "Salzgasse Wing", whose rooms were once occupied by the Grünes Gewölbe
Grünes Gewölbe
The Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden is a unique historic museum that contains the largest collection of treasures in Europe. Founded by Augustus the Strong in 1723, it features a rich variety of exhibits from the Baroque to Classicism...
. Special exhibitions of contemporary art are now held there across a floor space of 13,000 sq. ft.