Neues Museum

Description

Located in the centre of Nuremberg, the Neues Museum – Staatliches Museum für Kunst und Design in Nürnberg plays a significant role in contemporary art and design within the state museum network of the Free State of Bavaria.

The museum stands on Klarissenplatz and was built following a resolution by the Bavarian state government at the end of the 1990s; construction took place in the late 1990s and the building opened in April 2000. Its architecture and relationship to the square combine contemporary design with the historic town centre; integrated into the building is a text-based artwork that addresses the relationship between the work of art and the viewer and refers to local figures of intellectual significance.

The art collection is based on the municipal collection of international contemporary art that began in 1967 and has since been expanded through donations, loans and targeted acquisitions. The exhibition concept presents selective highlights of international art history from the mid-20th century to the present. In the field of design the museum collaborates with Die Neue Sammlung in Munich and presents selected objects from the international history of design since 1945.

The museum holds around 4,500 works (including loans and gifts) and recorded nearly 1.5 million visitors in its first two decades. Represented artists include, among others, Andy Warhol, Joseph Beuys and Neo Rauch; an important collection piece is Richard Lindner’s painting "Telephone" (1966). The museum also manages the artistic estate of a painter and maintains long-term loans from private collections.

Recent acquisitions and donations include a monumental sculpture by Tony Cragg in the foyer, works by Thomas Ruff, and a large-format triptych that arrived shortly before its donor’s death. Acquisitions and loans have steadily expanded the holdings; a significant long-term loan in 2013 brought 69 works, including 28 paintings by Gerhard Richter, making the museum the third-largest Richter collection worldwide. Also exhibited and acquired was the walk-in water installation "Hexagonal Water Pavilion" by Jeppe Hein, which was presented several times on Klarissenplatz and at other city locations.

Not far from the museum is a municipal sculpture garden in the Zwinger between Sterntor and Frauentor, opened in 2004, with nine works by various artists installed on site and displayed outdoors among old trees and walls.