BERLIN, GERMANY.- The Neue Nationalgalerie will present “MoMA in Berlin: Masterworks from The Museum of Modern Art,” on view from February 18 to September 19, 2004. MoMA in Berlin presents more than 200 works that together provide a lucid overview of modern art since 1880, as represented by MoMA’s unparalleled collection of painting and sculpture. The closure of the permanent collection galleries during construction of the Museum’s new building has enabled the inclusion of a number of works that seldom travel but are nonetheless internationally known as canonical milestones in the development of modern art. Major examples include Claude Monet’s Water Lilies, Henri Matisse’s The Dance, Pablo Picasso’s Girl Before a Mirror, Jackson Pollock’s Number 1, 1948, and Andy Warhol’s Before and After. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalogue containing an anthology of texts drawn from the Museum’s archives and publications dating from 1929 to 2002.

The New National Gallery, the "temple of light and glass" is the home of 20th century European painting and sculpture ranging from classic modern art to art of the 1960s. The collection includes works by Munch, Kirchner, Picasso, Klee, Feininger, Dix and Kokoschka.

The collection - Highlights in the collection concentrate on works by representatives of cubism, expressionism, the Bauhaus and surrealism.

Works by Picasso, Gris and Leger illustrate the development of cubist art. Cubism and in particular the works of Picasso are complemented by the Berggruen Collection opposite Charlottenburg Palace.

Expressionism is represented by the group "Die Brücke" with significant works by Kirchner, Schmidt-Rottluff and Heckel. Kirchner’s "Potsdamer Platz", painted in 1914, now stands in fascinating contrast to the current changes taking place on its original site a few metres away from the gallery. Against that famous background Kirchner painted his scene of Berlin nightlife shortly after the beginning of the First World War.

Among the collection’s major works are eleven paintings by Max Beckmann dating from 1908 to 1942. They offer a good insight into the development of his life’s work. Surrealist painting is represented by artists such as Ernst, Dali and Miró.

Paintings by Otto Dix and George Grosz document the movements of Verism and Neue Sachlichkeit (new objectivity). The Bauhaus is illustrated with works by Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky who were both teachers at the school.

The building has almost 5,000 square metres of exhibition space and about 800 metres of wall space, a surprisingly large capacity concealed beneath the famous steel and glass construction.

The spacious glass hall at ground level and sections of the lower-ground floor are used for special exhibitions attracting 100,000 visitors each year. The permanent exhibition is on show in the lower part of the gallery.

For those who enjoy sculptures there are a number of works immediately surrounding the gallery as well as in the western sculpture garden. Visitors gain access to the garden on request. Here, a variety of important works ranging from figurative to abstract representation can be viewed in particularly pleasant and relaxed surroundings.