Berlin’s Neue Nationalgalerie, an iconic modern art museum designed by Bauhaus pioneer Ludwig Mies van der Rohe and only postwar building in Europe, reopened to public after going through six years of refurbishment this weekend. The museum closed in 2014 due to a much-needed overhaul.
British architect David Chipperfield oversaw the extensive refurbishment of the steel-and-glass structure, a project that cost US$164mil (RM693mil). Germany’s culture minister, Monika Gruetters, said during a celebration ceremony held on Saturday that the occasion marked the museum’s “brilliant comeback as a pilgrimage site for lovers of modern art and as a stage for contemporary artists.”
For the museum, the architect took unrealized plans he drew for a Bacardi Rum company administration building in Cuba and created a delicate structure consisting of a large glass hall with a steel roof protruding far. Interpreting the appearance in their way, the locals lovingly named the listed building “the gas station.”
Across a gross floor area of almost 150,000-square-feet, exhibition areas take up the building’s open space ground and lower ground floor. The outdoor facilities include a sculpture garden and podium terrace on which the 18-foot-tall masterpiece Têtes et Queue by American sculptor Alexander Calder (1898–1976), originally installed for the museum’s opening in 1968, returns.
The museum is reopening with three exhibitions: a selection of key works from its collection, a show of works by sculptor Alexander Calder, and another dedicated to film and media artist Rosa Barbra.
Berlin is creating more space to show its contemporary art collection by building a new “Museum of the 20th Century” next door to the Neue Nationalgalerie.