Museum Berggruen, part of Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin, is one of the most exceptional modernist collections in the world. The collection, which was built across decades by the German American collector and art dealer Heinz Berggruen (19142007), includes masterpieces by Pablo Picasso, Paul Klee, Georges Braque, Paul Cezanne, Henri Matisse and Alberto Giacometti. By putting this collection in dialogue with the National Gallery of Australia’s rich collection of modernist artists, such as Cossington Smith, John Passmore, Grace Crowley, Hirschfeld Mack, Inge King and Rosemary Madigan, we can illuminate the electrifying way in which ideas, techniques and artists moved across the borders of space, time and culture. This authoritative publication stages a conversation between European and Australian art across a period of revolution and reinvention throughout the twentieth century. A major collaborative essay researched and written by exhibition curators David Greenhalgh, Natalie Zimmer and Deirdre Cannon explores how these artists took inspiration from one other and the circulation of images, objects and artworks that marked the modern age. This curatorial team are joined by other scholars including Dr Gabriel Montua, Head of Museum Berggruen, Neue Nationalgalerie Stiftung Preuischer Kulturbesitz and Simeran Maxwell also examine key artists and their works in details through a selection of annotated plates. Featuring over 140 colour reproductions and a conveniently compact flat-reading format with gatefold, this rich publication not only demonstrates how these artists envisioned new ways of looking at the world, but provides a new way of seeing these artists within transnational contexts.
