On March 16, 2013, the Berggruen Museum, part of the National Gallery, reopened its doors to the public to showcase its famous collection of Modern Art.
Image gallery
Henri Matisse, Sauteuse de corde (Die Seilspringerin), 1952
Alberto Giacometti, Grande femme III (Große Stehende III), 1960
Georges Braque, Nature morte à la pipe. Le Quotidien du Midi (Stillleben mit Pfeife. Le Quotidien du Midi), 1914
Paul Cézanne, Portrait du jardinier Vallier (Bildnis des Gärtners Vallier), c. 1906
Paul Klee, Erwachende, 1920
Ausstellungsansicht: "Picasso und seine Zeit" mit Werken von Henri Matisse
Pablo Picasso, Le chandail jaune (Der Gelbe Pullover), 1939, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Nationalgalerie, Museum Berggruen
The western Stüler building was expanded to include the neighboring Kommandantenhaus on Spandauer Damm and the newly landscaped Bettina Berggruen Garden. The collection’s name and origins trace back to the art dealer and collector Heinz Berggruen (1914–2007). Over a period of more than forty years, he assembled masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee, and Alberto Giacometti.
Under the title “Picasso and His Time,” the Berggruen Collection was first presented in the western Stüler Building in 1996 and acquired by the Prussian Cultural Heritage Foundation for the National Gallery in 2000. Today, the collection at the Museum Berggruen—supplemented by other significant loans from the family—is one of the most important venues for Classical Modernism.
Berggruen as a gallerist and art collector Heinz Berggruen was born in 1914 in Berlin-Wilmersdorf. In 1936, he emigrated from Nazi Germany to the United States, where he initially worked as a freelance cultural journalist and, beginning in 1939, was employed at the San Francisco Museum of Art. After the war, he founded a gallery in Paris that represented many of the artists whose works Berggruen also began collecting privately. In 1980, Berggruen retired from his gallery and focused on expanding his collection. He was particularly interested in those artists who today form the core of the museum’s collection.
With more than 120 works by Pablo Picasso (1881–1973), the Berggruen Museum offers a diverse overview of his artistic development. On display are key works, such as Picasso’s famous motif of the seated harlequin from the Rose Period, an impressive detailed study for "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," as well as numerous portraits of Dora Maar.
Another focal point is the work of Paul Klee (1879–1940). Henri Matisse (1869–1954) and Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966) are represented primarily by their later works. In addition, the museum displays works by Georges Braque, Henri Laurens, and Paul Cézanne.
A permanent exhibition of the National Gallery of the State Museums in Berlin.
