The MoMA in Berlin
February 20, 2004 - September 19, 2004
Neue Nationalgalerie

In a unique exhibition, MoMA, the Museum of Modern Art in New York, is presenting over 200 of his most important works of the 20th century for seven months in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin.

The background to this unusual cooperation is extensive renovation work at the world-famous museum in New York. This offers a unique opportunity to view masterpieces by artists such as Cézanne, van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, Dali, Kandinsky, Beckmann, Hopper, Pollock and many others from February 20th to September 19th, 2004 exclusively in the Neue Nationalgalerie at Potsdamer Platz to see in Berlin.

This exhibition of the century ranges from the late Impressionists to works of classical modernism and contemporary art. Berlin was able to assert itself against well-known competitors when awarding this exhibition. The good contacts between the two institutions and between MoMA boss Glenn Lowry and SMB general director Peter-Klaus Schuster were the deciding factor. The location of the exhibition in Berlin, the Neue Nationalgalerie, the architectural masterpiece of the late Mies van der Rohe, also played an important role. Mies van der Rohe's New National Gallery has rightly been described as the temple of modern art. With 'MoMA in Berlin', with the masterpieces of the Museum of Modern Art, this temple of modernity receives its complete content.

'MoMA in Berlin', this exhibition is a unique stroke of luck for Berlin. No city was more of a hub for classical modern art at the beginning of the 20th century. And no city has been left with as little of this wealth due to the horrors of the 20th century as Berlin. 'MoMA in Berlin' is therefore a look back at its best traditions for Berlin. At the same time, the Museum of Modern Art is returning to its roots with 'MoMA in Berlin'. In 1927, the founding director Alfred H. Barr visited the New Department of the Nationalgalerie in the Kronprinzenpalais. He was enthusiastic about Ludwig Justi's concept of a museum exclusively for modern art. At the same time, Alfred H. Barr was fascinated by the Bauhaus and its call for all arts to work together. It was therefore no coincidence that Barr chose Mies van der Rohe, the last director of the Bauhaus, as the architect for the first museum building at MoMA, which opened in 1929. In 2004, exactly on the occasion of its 75th anniversary, the MoMA in Berlin will present parts of its collection in the Mies van der Rohe building.

'MoMA in Berlin' should by no means be limited to masterpieces of painting and sculpture. In the New National Gallery, these form the focus of a cultural event that spans all art genres and links the two artistic event fields of New York and Berlin in a variety of ways. In cooperation with the exhibition 'MoMA in Berlin', 2004 is set to be an exciting year of art thanks to numerous events and these Berlin cultural institutions. Negotiations are currently underway with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Hebbel Theater and the Berliner Festwochen, the most important cooperation partners of the Berlin State Museums, with a view to a rich supporting program for 'MoMA in Berlin'.

With such an overall production, the institutions want to illustrate the context in which the masterpieces of the 20th century were created. In doing so, they reaffirm the Museum of Modern Art's old Bauhaus belief in the interaction of all modern arts. 'MoMA in Berlin' with its rich accompanying program offers 2004 an 'American Year' in Berlin. But first, 'MoMA in Berlin' reflects the legendary sympathy that Berlin and New York have always felt for each other and that has always been a source of mutual artistic inspiration.