, Germany by Dagmar Wankowski www.Agora-Gallery.com/Artistpage/Dagmar_Wankowski.aspx Berlin, the capital of Germany, is becoming more and more attractive for art enthusiasts and tourists from all over the world. Statistically, every minute 20 tourists visit the metropolis on the Spree River. Fantastic art treasures such as the Nefertiti in the Neues Museum and the Pergamon Altar in the Pergamon Museum are favorite pieces and places. About 175 Berlin museums present history, knowledge, and art. At the Gemäldegalerie and Staatliche Museen zu Berlin you can find European paintings from the thirteenth century until the eighteenth century. Famous names include Jan van Eyck, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer, Raphael, Titian, Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, and Jan Vermeer van Delft. The Kupferstichkabinett presents masterpieces by artists like Botticelli, Dürer, Rembrandt, Adolph Menzel, van Gogh, , Picasso, Warhol, and Gerhard Richter. The National Gallery, which shows art ranging from classical modern to contemporary art, displays objects, photography, and multimedia by artists such as Mike Steiner and Joseph Beuys. The Brücke Museum shows works by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Fritz Bleyl, , Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and others. “The Bridge” is one of the oldest communities that have had a big influence in modern classical art. As with most things in Berlin, the gallery scene is diverse, fragmented and everywhere. It is like “street art.” Art is located in interesting places in Berlin. The most famous gallery for street art itself is the East Side Gallery. It is the longest open-air gallery in the world, at 1,316 meters. It forms part of what was once the border between East and West Berlin. The old Royal Post Office, built in 1881, houses the C/O Gallery, which focuses on photography. Young and upcoming artists are supported, as well as some of the biggest names including Robert Mapplethorpe, Peter Lindbergh, and Annie Leibovitz. The Hamburger Bahnhof is located in the former main train station, built in 1847. The central collection features Dr. Erich Max, Robert Rauschenberg, Lichtenstein and Warhol. The National Gallery has a permanent collection here with brilliant photo- graphs, paintings and videos. The KW Institute for Contemporary Art is also worth a visit – it shows the development of the city, following the fall of the Berlin Wall, into a center for contemporary art. If you’re looking for art that is distinctively German, and even characteristic of the city itself, then check out the Berlinische Galerie with its permanent collection exhibiting and Berlin Dada, featuring artists including Max Liebermann, Raoul Hausmann, Otto Bartning and Naum Gabo. Big events on the art calendar include the Gallery Weekend — with more than 50 private galleries participating — the Berlin Art Week, Preview Berlin, the abc-art berlin contemporary, and the Berliner Liste 2014. Berlin is enormously popular with all kinds of art professionals, from gallery owners and curators to critics and collectors, and boasts a huge community of artists. In particular, young, emerging artists, both national and international, are inspired by the vitality and energy of the city, as well as its fast-developing and exciting art community. If you visit, I’m sure that you will be too!

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