25.04.2025
Neue Nationalgalerie
Through the private initiative of Birgit and Thomas Rabe, key works by artists Maria Lassnig, Ewa Partum and Cornelia Schleime could be acquired for the Nationalgalerie collection in the spring of 2025. An annual allocation of one million euros to acquire works for the Neue Nationalgalerie is now in place for the next three years. Purchases mainly of works by women artists are initially planned. The acquisitions are currently on view at the Neue Nationalgalerie.
The long-term cooperation allows the Neue Nationalgalerie, which only has a small purchasing budget available, room to manoeuvre to carry out the necessary expansion of the 20th-century art collection. Individual acquisitions are made possible through the FREUNDE der Nationalgalerie or foundations, such as the Ernst von Siemens-Stiftung in Munich. The financial support from Birgit and Thomas Rabe, which has been secured for at least three years, provides the museum with planning security again. Over the next three years, the museum intends to first purchase key works by 20th-century women artists not previously represented in the collection. Ten works were acquired for the Neue Nationalgalerie with this year’s allocations from the FREUNDE der Nationalgalerie.
All the acquisitions are currently on view in the collection presentation Extreme Tension: Art between Politics and Society. Collection of the Nationalgalerie, 1945 – 2000, curated by Joachim Jäger, Maike Steinkamp and Marta Smolińska, an art history professor at the University of Arts Magdalena Abakanowicz in Poznań, Poland. Until now, these artworks have only been exhibited as loans – similar to many other works by women artists, they were deliberately integrated into the presentation to provide a more differentiated and feminine perspective on the art of the second half of the 20th century.
Like most public collections in Germany, the Nationalgalerie collection has been strongly male-dominated to date. After the purchase of works by Lassnig, Partum and Schleime, further acquisitions in the areas of video, performance and photography are intended to follow next year – also from among the exhibits now on view in Extreme Tension, including works by women artists such as Marina Abramović, Agnes Denes, Yoko Ono and Nancy Holt. The purchase of a work from the classical Modern period is planned for 2027.