20.02.2004 to 19.09.2004
In a unique exhibition at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, the Museum of Modern Art in New York is showing 200 masterpieces of the 20th-century from its collections.
The opportunity for this exceptional cooperation arose from extensive renovation works being undertaken in the famous museum in New York. This allowed the possibility of a single exhibition in Berlin showing work from the masterpieces of the late Impressionists to works of the classic modernity and contemporary art.
The exhibition starts with the heroic painters at the turn of the century. Cézanne's young man 'The Bather' (c. 1885) is presented next to van Gogh's dynamic 'Starry Night' (1889) and Rousseau's mysterious 'Dream' (1910).
They are followed by comprehensive sets of works of the two main protagonists of 20th century art - Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse. Bound by a life-long competitive friendship, Picasso and Matisse (ten years his senior) were the only evenly matched artists of the time. At the same time, the metaphysics of the century are on show: Malevich and his 'Suprematic Composition: White in White 1' (918) and Mondrian with his 'Composition No. 1' (1926).
Another highlight of the exhibition is the presentation of works of surrealism. In addition to paintings of Miró, Tanguy and Dalí with his 'The Persistence of Memory' (1931), the Readymades of Marcel Duchamp and the fantastic cup of fur of Meret Oppenheim (1936) describe an absurd world in which anything is possible.
The encounter between artists driven out of Europe by the National Socialist regime in Germany with young American painters, produced the 'School of New York', which became highly important for the second half of the century. Jackson Pollock's 'Number I' (1948), Barnett Newman's 'Broken Obelisk' (1963-69) and Robert Motherwell's 'Elegy for the Spanish Republic' are legendary. The Pop Art of Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg and others, continued the success-line of American art until today.
The presentation of the MoMA collection ends with the work of a German artist - Gerhard Richter's cycle to the Rote Armee-Fraktion, the '18. Oktober 1977' (1988).
Opening Hours:
August 2004:
Tues, Wed 8 a.m. - 6 p.m.
Thurs, Fri 8 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sat 10 a.m. - 10 p.m.
Sun 10 a.m. - 8 p.m.
September 2004:
Tues, Wed, Thurs 8 a.m. - 12 p.m.
Fri 8 a.m. - 2 a.m.
Sa 10 a.m. - 2 a.m.
So 10 a.m. - 12 a.m.
Further informations: www.das-moma-in-berlin.de
