Neue Galerie
Encyclopedia
German language
German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....
: "New Gallery") is a museum of early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design located at 86th Street
86th Street (Manhattan)
86th Street is a major two-way street in the Upper East Side and Upper West Side of the New York City borough of Manhattan.On the West Side its continuous cliff-wall of apartment blocks includng The Belnord is broken by two contrasting landmarked churches at prominent corner sites, the Tuscan...
and Fifth Avenue in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. It is one of the most recent additions to New York City's famed Museum Mile
Museum Mile, New York City
Museum Mile is the name for a section of Fifth Avenue in Manhattan in the city of New York, in the United States, running from 82nd to 104th streets on the Upper East Side in a neighborhood known as Carnegie Hill. The "mile", which contains one of the densest displays of culture in the world, is...
, which runs from 83rd to 105th streets on Fifth Avenue in the Upper East Side
Upper East Side
The Upper East Side is a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City, between Central Park and the East River. The Upper East Side lies within an area bounded by 59th Street to 96th Street, and the East River to Fifth Avenue-Central Park...
of Manhattan
Manhattan
Manhattan is the oldest and the most densely populated of the five boroughs of New York City. Located primarily on the island of Manhattan at the mouth of the Hudson River, the boundaries of the borough are identical to those of New York County, an original county of the state of New York...
.
History
The museum was first conceived by two close friends: art dealer and museum exhibition organizer Serge Sabarsky, and entrepreneur, philanthropist, and art collector Ronald S. Lauder. The two men shared a passionate commitment to early twentieth-century German and Austrian art and design. They met in 1967, just before Sabarsky opened his Serge Sabarsky Gallery gallery at 987 Madison Avenue. Almost immediately, the gallery earned a reputation as New York’s leading gallery for Austrian and German ExpressionistExpressionism
Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas...
art. Lauder was a frequent visitor and client. Over the years, the two men discussed opening a museum to showcase the very best work from the period. When Sabarsky died in 1996, Lauder chose to carry on the task of creating Neue Galerie New York, as a tribute to his friend.
Collection
The collection of the Neue Galerie is divided into two sections. The second floor of the museum houses works of fine art and decorative art from early twentieth-century Austria, including paintings by Gustav KlimtGustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
, Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka
Oskar Kokoschka was an Austrian artist, poet and playwright best known for his intense expressionistic portraits and landscapes.-Biography:...
, and Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele
Egon Schiele was an Austrian painter. A protégé of Gustav Klimt, Schiele was a major figurative painter of the early 20th century. His work is noted for its intensity, and the many self-portraits the artist produced...
and decorative objects by the artisans of the Wiener Werkstaette and their contemporaries. The third floor exhibits various German works from the same era, including art movements such as Der Blaue Reiter
Der Blaue Reiter
Der Blaue Reiter was a group of artists from the Neue Künstlervereinigung München in Munich, Germany. The group was founded by a number of Russian emigrants, including Wassily Kandinsky, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, and native German artists, such as Franz Marc, August Macke and...
(The Blue Rider), Die Brücke
Die Brücke
Die Brücke was a group of German expressionist artists formed in Dresden in 1905, after which the Brücke Museum in Berlin was named. Founding members were Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff. Later members were Emil Nolde, Max Pechstein and Otto Mueller...
(The Bridge), and the Bauhaus
Bauhaus
', commonly known simply as Bauhaus, was a school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicized and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933. At that time the German term stood for "School of Building".The Bauhaus school was founded by...
. Featured artists on this floor include Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Kandinsky
Wassily Wassilyevich Kandinsky was an influential Russian painter and art theorist. He is credited with painting the first purely-abstract works. Born in Moscow, Kandinsky spent his childhood in Odessa. He enrolled at the University of Moscow, studying law and economics...
, Paul Klee
Paul Klee
Paul Klee was born in Münchenbuchsee, Switzerland, and is considered both a German and a Swiss painter. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. He was, as well, a student of orientalism...
, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a...
, Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Feininger
Lyonel Charles Feininger was a German-American painter, and a leading exponent of Expressionism. He also worked as a caricaturist and comic strip artist.-Life and work:...
, Otto Dix
Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.-Early life and...
, and George Grosz
George Grosz
Georg Ehrenfried Groß was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s...
.
In 2006, Lauder purchased Klimt's painting Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I
Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I is a painting by Gustav Klimt completed in 1907. According to press reports it was sold for US$135 million to Ronald Lauder for his Neue Galerie in New York City in June 2006, which made it at that time the most expensive painting for about 4 months...
from Maria Altmann
Maria Altmann
Maria Altmann was a Jewish refugee from Nazi Austria, noted for her ultimately successful legal campaign to reclaim five family-owned paintings by the artist Gustav Klimt, stolen by the Nazis during World War II, from the Government of Austria.She was born Maria Victoria Bloch, in Vienna...
on behalf of the Neue Galerie. Citing a confidentiality agreement, Lauder would only confirm that the purchase price was more than the last record price of $104.2 million US for Picasso's 1905 Boy With a Pipe
Garçon à la pipe
Garçon à la Pipe is a painting by Pablo Picasso. It was painted in 1905 when Picasso was 24 years old, during his Rose Period, soon after he settled in the Montmartre section of Paris, France...
. The press reported the price for the Klimt at US$135 million, which would make it at that time the most expensive painting ever sold. It has been on display at the museum since July 2006.
Facility
The museum is housed in the former William Starr Miller HouseWilliam Starr Miller House
The William Starr Miller House is a mansion located on 1048 Fifth Avenue and 86th Street, in the Upper East Side of New York City.- History :It was originally constructed for the industrialist William Starr Miller...
, a Louis XIII
Louis XIII style
The Louis XIII style or Louis Treize was a fashion in French art and architecture, especially effecting the visual and decorative arts. Its distinctness as a period in the history of French art has much to do with the regency under which Louis XIII began his reign...
/Beaux-Arts structure located on the corner of Fifth Avenue and 86th Street. The Neue Galerie opened there on November 16, 2001. Selldorf Architects was responsible for the complete renovation and conversion into a museum.
In addition to its gallery spaces, the museum also contains a bookstore, design shop, and two Viennese café
Viennese café
The Viennese Coffee House is a typical institution of Vienna that played an important part shaping Viennese culture.Since October 2011 the "Viennese Coffee House Culture" is listed as "Intangible Cultural Heritage" in the Austrian inventory of the "National Agency for the Intangible Cultural...
s, "Café Sabarsky" and "Café Fledermaus", both of which are operated by restaurateur Kurt Gutenbrunner.
Past Exhibitions
Brücke: The Birth of Expressionism, 1905-1913 opened on February 26, 2009, and ran through June 29, 2009. Featuring more than 100 paintings, sculptures, and works on paper, it was the first major exhibition in the United States to focus on the pioneering artists of the Expressionist group known as the Brücke. The show was organized by Reinhold Heller, a Neue Galerie board member and internationally recognized scholar of German Expressionism. The Neue Galerie was the sole venue for the show.Alfred Kubin: Drawings, 1897-1909 opened September 25, 2008, and ran through January 26, 2009. It was the first museum exhibition of the macabre works of Austrian artist Alfred Kubin
Alfred Kubin
Alfred Leopold Isidor Kubin was an Austrian printmaker, illustrator and occasional writer. Kubin is considered an important representative of Symbolism and Expressionism.-Biography:...
ever held in the United States. The show was organized by Annegret Hoberg, curator of the Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich
Munich
Munich The city's motto is "" . Before 2006, it was "Weltstadt mit Herz" . Its native name, , is derived from the Old High German Munichen, meaning "by the monks' place". The city's name derives from the monks of the Benedictine order who founded the city; hence the monk depicted on the city's coat...
, and it included more than 100 of Kubin's earliest works on paper.
Gustav Klimt: The Ronald S. Lauder and Serge Sabarsky Collections opened October 18, 2007, and ran through June 30, 2008 and it filled all the gallery spaces in the museum. Featuring highlights from the private collections of the museum's cofounders, it comprised eight paintings and over 120 works on paper by the Austrian avant-garde artist Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt
Gustav Klimt was an Austrian Symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. His major works include paintings, murals, sketches, and other art objects...
. The show also included an installation of the original furniture from the receiving parlor of Klimt’s studio at Josefstädter Strasse 21, and a recreation of Klimt’s masterpiece, the Beethoven Frieze
Beethoven Frieze
The Beethoven Frieze is a painting by Gustav Klimt.-Description:In 1902, Klimt painted the Beethoven Frieze for the 14th Vienna Secessionist exhibition, which was intended to be a celebration of the composer and featured a monumental polychrome sculpture by Max Klinger. Meant for the exhibition...
.
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner: Berlin Street Scene opened July 26, 2007, and ran through September 17, 2007. It was an exhibition focusing on a painting by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner was a German expressionist painter and printmaker and one of the founders of the artists group Die Brücke or "The Bridge", a key group leading to the foundation of Expressionism in 20th century art. He volunteered for army service in the First World War, but soon suffered a...
, which was restituted in November 2006 and which joined the collection of the Neue Galerie at the beginning of the summer of 2007. In addition to Berlin Street Scene, the exhibition featured a Kirchner sculpture, Standing Girl, Karyatide (1909–10), as well as a selection of paintings and works on paper that survey Berlin during the period; by Kirchner, Otto Dix
Otto Dix
Wilhelm Heinrich Otto Dix was a German painter and printmaker, noted for his ruthless and harshly realistic depictions of Weimar society and the brutality of war. Along with George Grosz, he is widely considered one of the most important artists of the Neue Sachlichkeit.-Early life and...
, George Grosz
George Grosz
Georg Ehrenfried Groß was a German artist known especially for his savagely caricatural drawings of Berlin life in the 1920s...
, and Christian Schad
Christian Schad
Christian Schad was a German painter associated with Dada and the New Objectivity movement. Considered as a group, Schad's portraits form an extraordinary record of life in Vienna and Berlin in the years following World War I.- Life :Schad was born in Miesbach, Upper Bavaria, to a prosperous...
.
Van Gogh and Expressionism opened March 22, 2007, and ran through July 2, 2007. It explored the crucial influence of Vincent van Gogh
Vincent van Gogh
Vincent Willem van Gogh , and used Brabant dialect in his writing; it is therefore likely that he himself pronounced his name with a Brabant accent: , with a voiced V and palatalized G and gh. In France, where much of his work was produced, it is...
on German and Austrian Expressionism. More than 80 paintings and drawings were on view, including a number of major canvases by Van Gogh, as well as important paintings by Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Alexej von Jawlensky
Alexej von Jawlensky
Alexej Georgewitsch von Jawlensky was a Russian expressionist painter active in Germany. He was a key member of the New Munich Artist's Association , Der Blaue Reiter group and later the Die Blaue Vier .-Life and work:Alexej von Jawlensky was born in Torzhok, a town in Tver...
, Franz Marc
Franz Marc
Franz Marc was a German painter and printmaker, one of the key figures of the German Expressionist movement...
, Wassily Kandinsky, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde
Emil Nolde was a German painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolour painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors...
, and others. This exhibition, organized by curator Jill Lloyd, the well-known scholar of Expressionism, filled all the gallery spaces in the museum.
Postcards of the Wiener Werkstätte: Selections from the Leonard A. Lauder Collection from October 7, 2010, to January 17, 2011. Exhibition Celebrates Gift from Philanthropist Leonard A. Lauder of Nearly 1,000 Postcards to Neue Galerie
The Neue Galerie presents the first major museum exhibition ever held in the United States devoted exclusively to the postcards produced by the Wiener Werkstätte. The work in the exhibition is drawn exclusively from The Leonard A. Lauder Collection and coincides with the gift of nearly 1,000 of these postcards to the Neue Galerie. http://www.neuegalerie.org/exhibitions/wiener-werkst%C3%A4tte-postcards