Staatsgalerie

Staatsgalerie, art museum in Stuttgart, Germany, comprising two locations, the Alte (Old) Staatsgalerie and the Neue (New) Staatsgalerie. The Alte Staatsgalerie houses a collection of European art—namely, German Renaissance paintings, Italian paintings from 1300 to 1800, prints, drawings, and photographs. The Neue Staatsgalerie exhibits the museum’s 20th- and 21st-century artworks.

(Read Sister Wendy’s Britannica essay on art appreciation.)

When the Staatsgalerie, designed in the Neoclassical style by Georg Gottlob Barth, opened in 1843, it was one of Germany’s first museums, with a collection featuring the works of German and European Old Masters. Destroyed in World War II, the museum was reopened in 1958, rebuilt (with some modifications) according to its original plan. In 1984 a second building, the Neue Staatsgalerie, designed in a postmodern style by British architect James Stirling, was completed. The Alte Staatsgalerie building was further extended with an addition by the Swiss architects Wilfrid and Katharina Steib (completed 2002). This extension enabled the return of the department of prints, drawings, and photographs (which had been removed to the Crown Prince’s Palace in the 1930s) and includes office space, study centres, the library, and restoration workshops.

(Read Glenn Lowry’s Britannica essay on "Art Museums & Their Digital Future.")