Lenbachhaus redux
It houses a breathtaking collection of works by the early 20th-century Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter) group of German and Russian Expressionist painters that included Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, Gabriele Muenter, Alexej von Jawlensky, Marianne von Werefkin, Lyonel Feininger and August Macke.
When I first visited the Lenbachhaus at the tender age of 20 I came as close as I ever have, at least in the non-romantic sense, to pure rapture.
German and Austrian art in America
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| Gustav Klimt - Portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer I (1907) - Wikimedia Commons |
Ronald S. Lauder, a billionaire businessman, philanthropist and art collector, promised art dealer Serge Sabarsky, who died in 1996, that he would realize their mutual dream of setting up such a museum in Manhattan.
It is a fitting testimony to a true friendship and to a deep love of art.
Art transcends everything
The Neue Galerie, which means "New Gallery" in German, serves to underscore that art - like nature - transcends everything, including all human-induced horrors. Sabarsky survived the Shoah by immigrating as a young man from his native Austria to New York City, where he lived a life dedicated to art.
Now his legacy has been immortalized through the Neue Galerie by Lauder, who has also been active at international level in the restitution of art looted by Germany's Nazi regime to its rightful heirs.
(Lauder has, for instance, hailed the jewel in the Neue Galerie's crown - Gustav Klimt's "Portrait of Adele-Bloch Bauer I" - as "our Mona Lisa.")
Lauder collection now on show at the Neue Galerie
I hope to return to New York soon to see a special show at the Neue Galerie exhibiting select works from Lauder's personal collection spanning several centuries and genres.
I was so excited about the Neue Galerie's 10th anniversary and this exhibition that I wrote something about it during my "day job" which you can read here.
Cafe Sabarsky
On a more gastronomic note, an Austrian friend who visited the Neue Galerie with me in July 2007 confirmed that everything in the museum's cafe - from the coffee and cake to the newspapers to the beer and sausage - was authentically Austrian.
I can confirm that it was all super delicious.
I can also confirm that I did not want to leave the museum's book store, ever.
Neue Galerie New York on Facebook
Stealing Klimt - A Film by Jane Chablani
"Degenerate Art": The Fate of the Avant-Garde in Nazi Germany (LACMA)
