Association of Friends of the National Gallery

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Friends of the Nationalgalerie eV
purpose Promotion of art and culture
Chair: Gabriele Quandt
Establishment date: 1929/1977
Seat : Berlin

The Friends of the Nationalgalerie eV, which was re-established in 1977 (formerly the Association of Friends of the Nationalgalerie eV ), is a non-profit organization that aims to sustainably promote the Nationalgalerie in Berlin and to contribute to its further development. He is the immediate successor of the "Association of Friends of the National Gallery", which was founded in Berlin in 1929 and whose activities were discontinued during World War II. The association currently has around 1,500 members. The chairwoman has been Gabriele Quandt since 2014 . The association is best known through the implementation of the exhibitions “ The MoMA in Berlin ” (2004) and “ The Most Beautiful French Come from New York ” (2007) in the New National Gallery under the chairman Peter Raue . The association is the recipient of the National Gallery Prize and the Film Art Prize .

history

When the consul Joachim Heinrich Wilhelm Wagener bequeathed his collection to the King of Prussia in 1859 as the basis for a national gallery, this was also a building block for the birth of the German nation-state . With the monumental temple of the National Gallery , inaugurated in 1876 , a further step was taken towards the development of a German national culture in the German Empire that had been founded five years earlier.

The director Hugo von Tschudi , who was appointed in 1896 , had the dream of adding a support association to the Nationalgalerie . But it was not until his successor Ludwig Justi , who was appointed in 1909 , to implement this project in June 1929, supported by the chairman of the board, Eduard Freiherr von der Heydt . In the founding phase, the Association of Friends of the National Gallery had 70 members.

While Ludwig Justi mainly pursued a “German line” in his acquisitions, the association was also able to acquire international art such as Braque , Gris , Munch , Picasso . These works remained the property of the friends' association and were loaned to the National Gallery . After the beginning of the “ Third Reich ” and Ludwig Justi's impeachment, there were no spectacular acquisitions. Since the “ Degenerate Art ” campaign in 1937, the association was forced to sell its European Modernist paintings for a fraction of their value.

Max Liebermann: Stevenstift in Leyden

During the Second World War , the number of members was reduced to 15. After the war he stopped his activities. It was not until June 8, 1977, on the initiative of director Dieter Honisch, that the Association of Friends of the National Gallery was brought back to life. At the founding meeting, it was decided to acquire Max Liebermann's Stevenstift in Leyden in order to forestall other potential buyers. The association was thus immediately active in its statutory duties; and at this pace it should go on.

Today the association has more than 1,500 members and company members who provide a budget of over 1 million euros through membership fees alone. The success story of the association is closely linked to the personality of its first chairman, Peter Raue , who headed the association from 1977 to 2008. It is thanks to his charisma that it has become the most prominent museum association in Germany. His successor until 2014 was the former Minister of State for Culture Christina Weiss . The entrepreneur Gabriele Quandt has been chairwoman of the association since 2014 . The association has been called Friends of the Nationalgalerie eV since 2016

Task of the association

The purpose of the association is to sustainably promote the National Gallery and to participate in its further development. There are three pillars that determine the activities of the Friends of the National Gallery in accordance with the statutes :

  • The acquisition of works of art of extraordinary rank,
  • the financing and realization of special exhibitions by outstanding artists and important art-historical topics as well
  • the promotion of scientific work.

All activities take place in consultation with the director of the National Gallery . Basically there is no acquisition, no exhibition that is not requested by the artistic-scientific management.

Art purchases

The value of the works of art acquired by the association so far is around 55 million euros. Acquisitions range from Adolph Menzel and Max Liebermann to Dadaist assemblages by Hans Arp , Hannah Höch and Kurt Schwitters to the repurchase of “degenerate art” with Emil Nolde's “Christ and the Sinner” and the purchase of contemporary works by Jenny Holzer, for example , Christian Jankowski , Ceal Floyer or Thomas Demand . The highlight in 1982 was the daring courage - the association had 120 members at the time - to purchase Barnett Newman's “ Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue IV ” for US $ 1.2 million, a major work of American color field painting . First they bought - only then did they start collecting.

Sponsored exhibitions

Posters of the "most beautiful French" in front of the New National Gallery (in the background the Berlin Philharmonic )

More than six million people have visited the more than 70 exhibitions financed by the association since 1984. The highlight was the exhibition “ The MoMA in Berlin ” , which opened on February 20, 2004 . 1.2 million visitors streamed into the New National Gallery . This was the association's greatest success so far in this area with a financial surplus of 6.5 million euros from entrance fees, catalog sales and proceeds from the museum shop. The public impact of the exhibition was enormous.

Exhibitions (selection):

National Gallery Prize

The “ National Gallery Prize ”, donated by the association and awarded every two years, has been added since 2000 . By announcing this award, the association reacted to the fact that a new, young art and culture scene began to develop in Berlin at the beginning of the last decade . Young artists from all over the world came (and come) to the cultural metropolis on the Spree because they felt lifted and inspired by the creative atmosphere of the city.

Advancement award for film art

In 2011, in cooperation with the German Film Academy , the association also launched the Advancement Award for Film Art , formerly the National Gallery Prize for Young Film Art , to support the exchange between film and the visual arts. The prize is awarded every two years together with the National Gallery Prize .

literature

  • Andrea Meyer: In good company. The Association of Friends of the National Gallery Berlin from 1929 until today. Fannei & Walz Verlag, Berlin 1998, ISBN 978-3-9275-7446-5 .
  • Jan Rave: The Association of Friends of the National Gallery Berlin. Seemann Verlag, Leipzig 2002, ISBN 978-3-3630-0796-1 .
  • 30 years of the Association of Friends of the National Gallery. Kulturbuch Verlag, Berlin 2008, ISBN 978-3-8896-1126-0 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Gabriele Quandt: Chairwoman of the Association of Friends of the National Gallery. Association of Friends of the National Gallery, accessed on May 15, 2017 .
  2. ↑ The History of Friends - From Birth to Rebirth of the Friends' Association. Friends of the Nationalgalerie eV, accessed on June 6, 2017 .
  3. ^ Statutes - Association of Friends of the National Gallery. Friends of the Nationalgalerie eV, accessed on May 29, 2017 .