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Museum Berggruen
The Museum Berggruen presents exceptional works of classic modern art. Included among the artists are Picasso, Klee, Giacometti and Matisse.
The collection
The Museum Berggruen is situated in the Western Stüler Building, opposite Charlottenburg Palace. Oil paintings, sculptures and various works on paper are on show on three floors under the title "Picasso and his Time". More than 100 works by Picasso form the heart of the collection. The many facets of his life's-work are represented: beginning with a drawing from his student days in 1897 and ending with works he painted in 1972, one year before he died. The blue and pink period are represented as well as cubism and classicism. Since the 1920s Picasso practised different variations in style at the same time.
The collection also focuses on Paul Klee who is represented with more than 60 pictures. These small, delicate compositions reflect the poetic world of the artist from 1917 to 1940. In addition there are more than 20 works by Henri Matisse, including more than half a dozen of his famous paper-cuts. Sculptures by Alberto Giacometti as well as examples of African art also enrich the heart of the collection.
Since the museum was opened to the public in 1996, various works have been continuously acquired. One of the most significant ones is a work by Picasso, "Houses on a Hill (Horta de Ebro)" painted in 1909, which belonged to the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In December 2000 the contract about the acquirement of the collection by the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz (Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage) was signed.
On Friday 23 February 2007, Heinz Berggruen died in Paris at the age of 93. On 2 March 2007 his burial took place in the forest cemetary at Berlin-Dahlem, in the presence of Federal President Horst Köhler, Federal Chancellor Angela Merkel, Prof. Klaus-Dieter Lehmann, president of the Foundation of Prussian Cultural Heritage and Prof. Peter-Klaus Schuster, general director of the National Museums in Berlin. To view the obituary of Heinz Berggruen please click this link: www.smb.museum/pressemitteilungen
© Succession Picasso / VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2008; Foto: Jens Ziehe
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