UCCA Edge, Shanghai
June 22 to October 8, 2023
UCCA Beijing
November 11, 2023, to February 25, 2024
From June 22 to October 8, 2023, UCCA is collaborating with Berlin’s Museum Berggruen to present “Modern Time: Masterpieces from the Collection of Museum Berggruen / Nationalgalerie Berlin” at UCCA Edge in Shanghai.Theexhibitionfeaturesnearly100piecesbymodernmastersPablo Picasso (1881-1973), Paul Klee (1879-1940), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Alberto Giacometti(1901-1966),PaulCézanne(1839-1906),andGeorgesBraque(1882-1963), each carefully selected from Museum Berggruen’s unparalleled collection. Shown in China for the first time, these works by the six artists span painting, sculpture, paper cut-outs, and other media, allowing viewers to experience the development of modern art through styles such as Fauvism, Cubism, and Surrealism. One of Europe’s leading museums of modern art, MuseumBerggruenisamemberoftheNationalgalerieandtheStaatliche Museen zu Berlin (the Berlin State Museums).“Modern Time” marks the third stop of Museum Berggruen’s international exhibition tour following its debut in TokyoandsubsequentinstallmentinOsaka,andthefirsttimethetouring exhibition has been organized along chronological lines.
“Modern Time” invites viewers on a walk through the history of twentieth century art, offering a close-up view of the creative processes and thinking of six major figures. The Chinese translation of the exhibition title aptly references the idea of a leisurely stroll, promising an excursion that reveals the diverse artistic approaches and radical transformations found under the umbrella of Modernism. The exhibition is organized in strict chronology according to the completion of each work, rather than in thematic or artist sections. It thus introduces in sequence the new developments that marked the flourishing of creativity in Europe during the first half of the twentieth century. With more than 40 works by Picasso,“Modern Time” provides an all-encompassing overview of 8 decades of his artistic career.
Also on view are over 30 works by Klee, made in his creatively fertile period following the end of World War I, and more than 10 pieces by Matisse, including classic paper cut-outs which showcase the artist at the height of his powers in the later years of his career. In addition, the exhibition will highlight works by Braque and Giacometti, along with those of Cézanne, one of thekeyfiguresofmodernart,whohadanenormousimpactonallofthe aforementionedartists.
TheworksondisplayintheexhibitionarefromthecollectionoftheMuseum Berggruen, which takes its name and owes its origins to the legendary art dealer and collector Heinz Berggruen (1914-2007). Berggruen was a close confidant of Picasso and other artists, and throughout his life built an unmatched collection of modern art. Today that collection forms the core of Museum Berggruen’s holdings.
Henri Matisse, Interior, Étretat, 1920. Oil on canvas on wood, 42.5 × 33.7 cm. Museum Berggruen, Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, on loan from the Berggruen family. Photograph by bpk / Nationalgalerie, SMB, Museum Berggruen / Jens Ziehe.
UCCA is honored to welcome art from this priceless collection to China as part of the ongoing international exhibition tour which began at The National MuseumofWesternArt,Tokyo,andTheNationalMuseumofArt,Osaka.
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FollowingthetwostopsatUCCAmuseumsinChina,inautumn2024the exhibition will travel to Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris for its final installment. UCCAandMuseumBerggruenareexcitedtoworkcloselytogethertosharethis veritable feast of modern art with audiences in China and foster furtherSino-European cultural exchange.
“Modern Time” is among a number of recent major UCCA exhibitions focused on major modern artists, which seek to locate the roots of the contemporary in the modern.ArtworksbyPicassointheexhibitionexpandtheexplorationofthe artist’scareerbegunbythe2019UCCABeijingexhibition“Picasso–Birthofa Genius,”whilepiecesbyMatisseprovideabroaderperspectiveontheartistat the heart of “Matisse by Matisse,” another upcoming 2023 exhibition.
Furthermore, “Modern Time” compliments artistic discussions sparked by other recentexhibitionsinShanghai,suchas“BotticellitoVanGogh:Masterpieces from the National Gallery” at the Shanghai Museum. Audiences may move from Renaissance art and Impressionism to the experimental spirit of twentieth century Modernism, experiencing half a millennia of European art history without leaving the city.
GabrielMontua,HeadofMuseumBerggruenandexhibitionco-curator, comments,“I am very excited to see how the works from Museum Berggruen’s collection, all on view in China for the very first time, will be appreciated by local audiences.ThisisagreathonorandweatMuseumBerggruencanlearnalot from the reaction of visitors who see these works with fresh eyes and with a different visual heritage in their minds. I am very grateful to UCCA and its director Philip Tinari for this unique and wonderful cooperation.”
UCCADirectorandCEOPhilipTinarinotes,“UCCAisextremelygratefuland excited to be able to present this body of work to viewers in China. That this collection, some two decades after finding its place in a rich constellation of German state museums, can travel in its near entirety to the other side of the world is something worthy of celebration, particularly at a moment when such motion and the dialogue across eras and cultures that it sparks feel more urgent than ever.”
“ModernTime:MasterpiecesfromtheCollectionofMuseumBerggruen/ Nationalgalerie Berlin” is curated by Klaus Biesenbach, Director of Neue Nationalgalerie,GabrielMontua,HeadofMuseumBerggruen,andVeronika Rudorfer, curator at Museum Berggruen, and is presented in collaboration with UCCA.