22/11/2001

Last week saw the opening of a German expressionist museum in New York, the first of its kind in the United States. Called the Neue Galerie, it is located on Fifth Avenue and faces Central Park. The first show to be staged by the museum is “New Worlds: German and Austrian art 1890-1940” with 200 drawings, paintings and decorative objects installed on two floors, and on loan from the collection of the late dealer and co-founder Serge Sabarsky. Of particular note in the museum’s permanent collection is the record breaking Self Portrait with Horn by Max Beckman which was bought in May at Sotheby’s, New York for $ 20.5 million (€ 23.2 million) by the museum. The new museum also holds works by major names in German expressionism, including Klimt, Schiele, Kokoschaka, Kandinsky and Klee. (Andrew Moore)