01.08.2016
Gemäldegalerie
On 1 August 2016, Prof. Dr. Michael Eissenhauer, who has been Director-General of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin since 2008, additionally took on the direction of the Gemäldegalerie, as well as the Skulpturensammlung and Museum für Byzantinische Kunst.
The Stiftung Preussischer Kulturbesitz's board of trustees, chaired by Monika Grütters, Germany's Minister of Culture, unanimously agreed on the personnel decision in June 2015. Michael Eissenhauer is taking on this additional post at his own request for an initial period of three years. He is succeeding Prof. Dr. Bernd Wolfgang Lindemann, who directed the Gemäldegalerie from 2004 and the Skulpturensammlung and Museum für Byzantinische Kunst from 2007, and then entered retirement in July 2016.
'I am pleased to be able to continue Bernd Lindemann's successful work in the Gemäldegalerie and at the Bode-Museum,' Michael Eissenhauer said. 'Likewise, I want to continue the process of merging these two important collections of old masters that has already been started. It is my explicit goal to make the meaningful dialogue found within these unique painting and sculpture collections more visible in the permanent exhibitions, in addition to successful special exhibitions like the current El Siglo de Oro: The Age of Velázquez. With that, there is also the historic opportunity to make the connection between the Kulturforum and Museumsinsel even stronger!'
In addition to cooperation with international museums, Eissenhauer wants to further intensify the exchange between the other collections of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin in exhibitions and research projects in the coming years. Educational offers, as well as the up-to-date presentation of the collections, are also going to be developed. 'We would like to try new things and even dare to experiment, so that we can make the Gemäldegalerie more present to the public and more attractive for the increasingly diverse groups of visitors,' said Eissenhauer.
As of 1 September 2016, the curatorial work for 17th century Flemish and Dutch painting that was previously in the hands of Bernd Lindemann will become the responsibility of Berlin art historian Dr. Katja Kleinert. According to Michael Eissenhauer: 'With Katja Kleinert, we are welcoming one of the world's most renowned Rembrandt experts onto the Gemäldegalerie team. In addition to her outstanding international network, she is very familiar with the museum and the collection through the long-term interdisciplinary project The Rembrandt Database.'