In 2023, a serendipitous visit to the National Gallery of Australia (NGA) by the son of a passionate collector sparked the chance to show an extraordinary European collection to Australian audiences.
“My father’s interest lay not only in trophy paintings but also in quirky, intimate works,” notes Nicolas Berggruen, son of Heinz Berggruen, whose unique collection was acquired by the German state in 2000. While the Berlin facility undertakes capital works, over 80 works from the Museum Berggruen collection are presented alongside 75 works from the NGA, allowing viewers to share a journey through the history of modern art, and to witness the ways art harnesses energy, creates ongoing dialogue and propels culture.
Paintings and works on paper from artists who defined modernism in Europe, such as Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti, muscle for space alongside the work of Australian modernists including Anne Dangar, Roland Wakelin, Dorrit Black, Ian Fairweather and Grace Cossington Smith. Visitors can witness the ways Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso deconstructed and reassembled subjects on the canvas, propelling a new visual reality from a multitude of viewpoints.
“The artists from this important Berlin collection found inspiration in one another. We can look at this significant exhibition through the lens of a family tree of influence and see how the European avant-garde artists found their visual language and stimulated each other, which in turn changed the course of Australian art,” says curator David Greenhalgh.
Cézanne to Giacometti: Highlights from Museum Berggruen / Neue Nationalgalerie conveys the act of being an artist, and provides an opportunity for audiences to see and acknowledge that art is a conversation, one that here traverses Europe and Australia throughout the 20th century.
Cézanne to Giacometti: Highlights from Museum Berggruen / Neue Nationalgalerie
National Gallery of Australia
Until 21 September
This article was originally published in the July/August 2025 print edition of Art Guide Australia.
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