New National Gallery
New National Gallery, art museum in Berlin, Germany, featuring 20th-century European painting and sculpture.
(Read Sister Wendyâs Britannica essay on art appreciation.)
The New National Gallery is one of the museums that make up the National Museums of Berlin. The name âNewâ refers both to the relatively new building and the age of its collection. The gallery places particular emphasis on work from the early 20th century through the 1960s. Built in 1968, the New National Gallery was the first building completed as a part of Berlinâs Kulturforum, a cluster of buildings dedicated to culture and the fine arts. Like the neighbouring Kulturforum structures, it is an example of imaginative Modernist architecture. Designed by celebrated modernist architect Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, it is known popularly as the âtemple of light and glass.â In 2015â21 the building underwent a major renovation by architect David Chipperfield.
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(Read Glenn Lowryâs Britannica essay on "Art Museums & Their Digital Future.")
The New National Galleryâs grounds include a sculpture garden; inside the gallery some 53,820 square feet (5,000 square metres) of exhibition space are given over to the 20th centuryâs major art movements. Cubism, Expressionism, Bauhaus, and Surrealism are particularly well represented. Major artists displayed in the permanent collection include Edvard Munch, Pablo Picasso, Salvador DalĂ, Max Ernst, Hannah Höch, KĂ€the Kollwitz, Paul Klee, and Juan Gris. The galleryâs Expressionist collection contains significant paintings and sculptures by the early Expressionist group Die BrĂŒcke, including works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and Erich Heckel. Of particular note are paintings by the Expressionist Max Beckmann, one of Germanyâs 20th-century masters.