14.05.2012
Neue Nationalgalerie
The major Richter retrospective, 'Gerhard Richter: Panorama' closed its doors for the last time yesterday. More than 380,000 visitors managed to see the show at the Neue Nationalgalerie.
Udo Kittelmann, Director of the Nationalgalerie at the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, summed up its success: 'Measured by public interest alone, the exhibition has gone down as one of the most successful showings of works by a contemporary artist ever. There are various reasons for this success, but I would posit the main reason lies quite simply in the appearance and effect of Richter's art.'
The parallel exhibition of Gerhard Richter's painting series 'October 18, 1977' in the Alte Nationalgalerie also generated great visitor interest. On average, the exhibition had more than 4500 visitors a day, and an all-time record of over 7000 visitors was recorded on 15 March. When people did have to queue, they never had to wait for longer than an hour to get in.
Visitor interest was overwhelming right from day one, 12 February, and remained unabated until the end. For this reason, organizers decided to extend opening hours until 10 pm for the final weekend. The 30,000 allocated online tickets and 2000 guided tours had sold out by the end of March. There were however enough tickets on sale at the gallery itself on the day. The merchandising was also a hit with the public, with around 15,000 copies of the catalogue sold. The exhibition is now set to leave for its third and final destination, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, where it will go on show on 5 June. The exhibition first went on display at Tate Modern, London.
An exhibition held in collaboration with Tate Modern, London and the Centre Pompidou, Paris.
The exhibition has been made possible by the Verein der Freunde der Nationalgalerie and is sponsored by the Metro Group and Veolia Wasser.
We wish to thank our media partners involved in the project: Rbb Fernsehen, Rbb Kulturradio, Radio Eins, Die Welt, Berliner Morgenpost and art - Das Kunstmagazin.