From 25 April to summer 2025, the Neue Nationalgalerie will be presenting key new acquisitions by important female artists of the 20th century in the exhibition “Zerreißprobe. Art between Politics and Society”. This was made possible by the commitment of Birgit and Thomas Rabe, whose support enabled the acquisition of works by Maria Lassnig, Ewa Partum and Cornelia Schleime, among others.
Image above: Exhibition view “Zerreißprobe. Art between Politics and Society. Collection of the Nationalgalerie 1945-2000”, with acquired works by Cornelia Schleime and Ewa Partum, Neue Nationalgalerie, © Neue Nationalgalerie, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz / David von Becker
Thanks to the private initiative of Birgit and Thomas Rabe, key works by artists Maria Lassnig, Ewa Partum and Cornelia Schleime will be acquired for the Nationalgalerie’s collection in spring 2025. The annual grant of 1 million euros for the acquisition of works for the Neue Nationalgalerie will initially run for three years. Initially, it is primarily intended to acquire works by women artists. The acquired works are currently on display in the Neue Nationalgalerie.
The long-term cooperation gives the Neue Nationalgalerie, which itself has only a small acquisition budget, room for manoeuvre in the necessary expansion of its collection of 20th century art. Individual acquisitions are made possible by FREUNDE der Nationalgalerie or by foundations such as the Ernst von Siemens Foundation in Munich. Thanks to Birgit and Thomas Rabe’s financial support, initially for three years, the museum now has planning security again for the first time. Over the next three years, the museum will initially focus on acquiring key works by 20th century women artists that have not previously been represented in the collection. The Neue Nationalgalerie was able to acquire a total of ten works with this year’s donation to the FREUNDE der Nationalgalerie.
Klaus Biesenbach, Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie: “Through their private commitment, Birgit and Thomas Rabe have significantly improved the prospects of the Neue Nationalgalerie and berlin modern, which is currently under construction. With a generous donation over several years, they have allowed us to expand the collection with key items. Unfortunately, we ourselves have almost no acquisition budget. The Rabes are setting an example that we hope other sponsors will follow – thank you!”
Joachim Jäger, Deputy Director of the Neue Nationalgalerie: “It is precisely because there has been no state funding for acquisitions for a long time that private sponsorship is so important. We are very happy and grateful for the generous donation to the collection.”
Maike Steinkamp, curator at the Neue Nationalgalerie: “It is very important to us to give female artists greater visibility. With these acquisitions, we can finally close some painful gaps in the collection.”
Birgit and Thomas Rabe: “We are delighted to support the Neue Nationalgalerie in expanding its magnificent collection. We have been collecting art privately for years, and now, with the Neue Nationalgalerie, for the public.”
Among the acquisitions is the painting ‘Patriotic Family’ (1963) by the Austrian artist Maria Lassnig (1919-2014). In addition to the purchase, the Maria Lassnig Foundation is giving the painting ‘Self-Portrait as Indian Girl’ (1973) to the Neue Nationalgalerie on permanent loan, a painting that was already on display in Berlin in 1978 when she was in the city on a DAAD scholarship. With her strong, unconventional figure paintings, Lassnig is internationally recognised as one of the most influential painters of our time. She developed the concept of body-feeling painting. Her pictorial ideas arise from a subjective perception of the body, which also plays a major role in the painting process and leads to unusual colour schemes. The work ‘Patriotic Family’ is an early, outstanding example of this type of painting. At the same time, a reckoning with Pablo Picasso and the image of women visualised by him is recognisable in ‘Patriotic Family’.
The second significant acquisition is the purchase of the six-part photo series ‘Selbstidentifikation’ (1981) by Polish artist Ewa Partum (*1945). The collection also received the important video work ‘Change’ (1974) as a gift from the artist. Partum is one of the pioneers of feminist art in Poland. In her photo collages from the series Self-Identification, the artist shows her naked body in public spaces in Warsaw, in front of the seat of government, in front of a traffic policewoman on the street or in a queue in front of a grocery shop. In socialist countries, nudity was seen both as a gesture critical of authority and the system and as resistance to the prevailing social manners and conservative Catholicism. Through the liberation of the body, Partum links other political themes with feminism.
The third acquisition also focuses on the liberation of the body. Five photographs by Berlin artist Cornelia Schleime (*1953) from the series “Selbstinszenierung. Bondage‘ (1982) and ’Ich halt’ doch nicht die Luft an‘ Selbstinszenierung in Hüpstedt’ (1982) as well as the Super 8 film ‘Unter weißen Tüchern’ from 1983. Schleime lived in the GDR at the time and was banned from exhibiting her work. In her photographs and films from this period, the artist shows the restrictions and oppression she felt under pressure from the GDR regime at the time. She shows herself bound and gagged. However, the artist is never a victim. She is the courageous rebel, as she herself said in the title of one of her works: ‘I’m not holding my breath!’
All acquisitions are currently on display in the collection presentation “Zerreißprobe. Art between Politics and Society. Collection of the Nationalgalerie 1945 – 2000”, curated by Joachim Jäger, Maike Steinkamp and Marta Smolińska, Professor of Art History at the Magdalena Abakanowicz University of the Arts in Poznań. Until now, the works have only been shown as loans – like many other works by female artists, which have been deliberately integrated into the presentation to enable a more differentiated and feminine view of the art of the second half of the 20th century.
Like most public art collections in Germany, the Nationalgalerie’s collection has so far been strongly male-dominated. Following the purchase of works by Lassnig, Partum and Schleime, further acquisitions in the fields of video, performance and photography are to follow next year – including works that are currently on display in the ‘Zerreißprobe’, including works by female artists such as Marina Abramović, Agnes Denes, Yoko Ono and Nancy Holt. The purchase of a work of classical modernism is planned for 2027.
WHEN??
Exhibition dates: Friday, 25 April – Summer 2025
Opening hours: Tuesday – Wednesday 10am – 6pm, Thursday 10am – 8pm, Friday – Sunday 10am – 6pm
WHERE?
Neue Nationalgalerie
Potsdamer Straße 50
10785 Berlin
