Galerie Neue Meister

Description

With its collection of 19th- and 20th-century painting, the Galerie Neue Meister in Dresden occupies a significant position; of around 3,000 holdings, approximately 300 paintings are permanently on display, including numerous key works of modern art.

The Galerie Neue Meister is part of the Staatlichen Kunstsammlungen Dresden and has been housed since 1965 in the skylit galleries of the Albertinum on the Brühlschen Terrasse. Parts of the building were renovated after flood damage; during the alterations a flood-secure depot was created and additional space for contemporary art was provided in the Salzgassenflügel.

The collection goes back to the "Moderne Abteilung" of the Dresdner Gemäldegalerie, whose acquisition activity was intensified already in the 19th century. From 1843 funds were regularly allocated to the purchase of contemporary works, supported by institutional funding. Until the 1880s only a few major works of Romanticism were held; later targeted new acquisitions expanded the holdings, and after the international art exhibition of 1897 an increasing number of foreign works were added. Political interventions during the Nazi era led to the seizure and disposal of 56 works as part of the Degenerate Art campaign. During the air raid on Dresden on 13 February 1945, 196 paintings were destroyed by fire. After the war the gallery was re-established in 1959, and during the GDR period some of the removed paintings could be recovered. In 2010 the Albertinum was reopened after extensive renovation.

The collection concentrates on German Romanticism, the bourgeois realism of the second half of the 19th century, and Impressionism. In the exhibition rooms, sculptures from the same periods are integrated alongside the paintings. Prominent painters represented include Caspar David Friedrich, Carl Gustav Carus, Ludwig Richter, Max Liebermann, Lovis Corinth, Max Slevogt, Otto Dix and many other international figures from Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh to Pablo Picasso. Works of contemporary art are regularly presented; in the new Albertinum artists such as Georg Baselitz, A. R. Penck and Gerhard Richter have dedicated rooms.