29.03.2011
Nationalgalerie
For everything we've ever wanted to know about the National Gallery... Director Udo Kittelmann has the answers.
The concept of a national gallery gives the impression that the only thing collected there is national, or German art. In reality though, a host of international artists are brought together under one roof - why then does the gallery bear such a name?
The naming of the National Gallery has its roots in the fact that in the years of its foundation the museum was, with one or two exceptions, indeed dedicated principally to German art and the artworks in question were deemed national art treasures. The internationalisation of the collection was also, of course, the result of political changes and the increasing connections between artists themselves that transcended all geographical boundaries. Seen in this light, you could say that the National Gallery has shifted from the national to the global.
Spread over the city of Berlin, the National Gallery is on display in several buildings at once that are very distinct from each other. What is it that still holds the myriad features of this collection together?
Well for a start, all separate departments of the National Gallery are united by their shared history. Each division is historically and conceptionally bound to the institution of the National Gallery. But in terms of content too, they share a communality in focussing on fine art from the 19th, 20th and 21st century. Furthermore, within the wider framework of the National Museums in Berlin, the National Gallery has a clear ambit to focus on art from these periods. And although the specific areas have been divided up between the separate divisions, what we are actually dealing with here is a combined collection, which starts with Caspar David Friedrich, moves on to the extensive collection of works by Picasso in the Museum Berggruen and Barnett Newman's masterpiece 'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue?' and ends with the most recent donations in the Flick collection.
This year marks the 150th anniversary of the National Gallery, which was formed thanks to the donation from the collector Joachim Heinrich Wagener. How important are private art collectors and benefactors with private tastes in today's world?
Private patronage is just as important and essential as it ever was, in any ways perhaps even more so than before. The National Gallery is a great example of this. We've already mentioned the collections of Erich Marx and Friedrich Christian Flick, which the National Gallery currently presides over. But the individual dedication of all members of the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie, our society of friends, is also worth mentioning. Without the Verein der Freunde and with it the private and corporate support we receive, only a fragment of the exhibitions we put on could ever be realised. Not only that, but without decades of ongoing support, the collections themselves would not be what they are today.
How long is art labelled 'contemporary' in the National Gallery, which after all was itself founded as a collection of contemporary art?
As you rightly point out, the National Gallery was specifically founded as a museum of contemporary art and was based on the donation from Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener, a banker. Of course this core part of our collection that now falls under the ambit of the Alte Nationalgalerie has long since ceased to be contemporary art. But, by the fact that it was collected in the spirit of the art of its day, it still gives us an impression of what was once considered contemporary art and is thus able to bring to life the past when seen retrospectively.
The interview appeared in the National Museums' official newspaper (issue 2/2010).