Press release

Beijing, 31 March 2011

‘The Art of the Enlightenment’ at the National of An exhibition by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich, in conjunction with the National Museum of China in

2 April 2011 – 31 March 2012

Beijing – on 1 April, Liu Yandong, State Councillor of Culture of the People’s Republic of China and Guido Westerwelle, Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Germany, will officially open ‘The Art of the Enlightenment’ exhibition at the National Museum of China. The exhibition, jointly organized by Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and the Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich, together with the National Museum of China, is the first international exhibition to be hosted at the venue after its refurbishment and spectacular expansion. Falling under the joint auspices of Chinese President Hu Jintao and the President of the Federal Republic of Germany, Christian Wulff, the exhibition will be on show at the National Museum of China for twelve months, from 2 April 2011 to 31 March 2012.

An initial agreement on the long-term presentation of artworks by the three German museum partners in the National Museum of China was first signed by the then German President Horst Köhler and his Chinese counterpart Hu Jintao in the in Beijing in May 2007. The joint exhibition project between the three German museum bodies and the National Museum of China was then formally agreed to in detail in writing in January

2009, in a ceremony attended by the German Chancellor and the Chinese Premier, held in the German Chancellery in Berlin. The exhibition project ties into the Sino-German cultural exchange programme, bilaterally agreed to in 2005 that aims to foster mutual understanding between the two countries and broaden cultural ties. It is also a component of the Sino-German ‘Communiqué on the Comprehensive Advancement of the Strategic Partnership’, signed by Wen Jiabao and Angela Merkel in July 2010 in Beijing. The exhibition has received significant funding from the German Foreign Office.

As an official programme of events to accompany the exhibition, in 2011 and 2012 Stiftung Mercator will be holding a series of events, entitled ‘Enlightenment in Dialogue’, organized in conjunction with its partner, the National Museum of China, at the initiative of the German ambassador in China and with support from the Chinese Ministry of Culture. The programme consists of five separate dialogue blocks and will run for the entire duration of the exhibition, from spring 2011 to spring 2012. The first dialogue will take place on 2 April 2011, in a session on ‘The art of the Enlightenment – the history of an exhibition’. The organizers of the exhibition, director generals and curators, will speak on the exhibition’s origins, introduce the collections where the works on display are usually held, as well as go into the reasons behind their choice of exhibition topic. On top of the programme in the National Museum of China itself, Stiftung Mercator is also holding series of salons on the theme of enlightenment in conjunction with various other Chinese partners. Programme details are available at: www.aufklaerung-im-dialog.de

An additional partner for the exhibition is formed by BMW Group which will be enriching the exhibition through such accompanying platforms as curatorial exchange

programmes and a youth congress. In addition, BMW Group is also the initiator of the accompanying music series, ‘The Music of the Enlightenment’, which is set to commence on 1 April with the opening concert under the baton of Lorin Maazel. Together with musicians from the Bavarian State Orchestra and Staatskapelle Berlin, the Staatskapelle Dresden will perform Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’. The concert is also receiving support from Volkswagen Group China.

The Chinese partners have been convinced to embark on a collaboration with the three major German museum bodies thanks to existing confident ties built up over many years. For Berlin, Dresden and Munich ‘The Art of the Enlightenment’ is the logical continuation of their common involvement in China that began in 2005 with the photographic exhibition ‘Humanism in China’ and continued in 2008 with the exhibitions ‘Living Landscapes: A Journey through German Art’ and ‘Gerhard Richter’ held at the National Art Museum of China (NAMOC). In a joint statement, the director generals of the three German museum bodies, Michael Eissenhauer (Berlin), Martin Roth (Dresden), and Klaus Schrenk (Munich), proudly announced that: ’The exhibition opens up the visual world of an epoch on the cusp of modernity, whose ideas are still of seminal importance for art today and whose diverse effective history is about to be made tangible to the Chinese public.’

The three giants among German museum associations make ideal partners for this project, thanks to the broad spectrum of their respective collections which actually have their historical roots in the culture of collecting and the European artistic landscape of the Enlightenment itself. Among the just under 600 loans on show are masterpieces by Chodowiecki, Friedrich, Gainsborough, Goya, Graff, Greuze, Hogarth, Kauffmann, Pesne, Piranesi, Tischbein, Vernet and Watteau. Spread over 2700 m², the exhibition

presents the entire artistic spectrum of the arts of the Enlightenment – ranging from masterpieces in painting, sculpture, drawings and prints, through to crafts and fashion and even exquisite scientific instruments. A total of nine sections focus the visitor’s gaze on the core themes of 18th century art: ‘Court Life in the Age of the Enlightenment’, ‘Perspectives of Knowledge’, ‘The Birth of History’, ‘Far and Near’, ‘Love and Sensibility’, ‘Back to Nature’, ‘Shadows’, ‘Emancipation and the Public Sphere’ and ‘The Revolution of Art’.

The exhibition has been jointly conceived and organized by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen Munich and the National Museum of China. The team of curators, formed from committees from all four museum institutions, have received substantial support from renowned research organizations in the field of socio-cultural sciences, including the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, the Institute of History at the University of Potsdam and the Berlin-Brandenburgische Akademie der Wissenschaften. All research findings will be documented in a detailed catalogue, published in English and Chinese, that will make the fundamentals of European art from the Enlightenment available to the wider Chinese public for the first time. The educational programme of accompanying art talks and tours has been drawn up by the National Museum of China and the three German museum bodies, in conjunction with the Goethe Institute. The Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin has also provided the exhibition with several important loans.

The National Museum of China will celebrate its reopening in the spring of 2011 after being refurbished and expanded by Hamburg-based architects Gerkan, Marg und Partner.

With rooms totalling 195,000 m² in size, it is now the largest museum building in the world. The building’s new dimensions meet the demands of turning the museum into a forum for the arts and cultures of the world as a whole, able to host magnificent exhibitions from all over the globe, as well as presenting Chinese artistic and cultural history. This exhibition on the Enlightenment’s artistic and philosophical legacy that continues to shape the identity of Western civilization today is a symbol of the boundless scope and educational ambit of in general as sites of enlightenment.

The Art of the Enlightenment 2 April 2011 – 31 March 2012 National Museum of China 16, East Chang’an Street, Dongcheng District Beijing 100006, China www.chnmuseum.cn www.kunstderaufklaerung.de

Media photos Press photos are available at www.kunstderaufklaerung.de

Contacts Mechtild Kronenberg Head of Media, Communications and Sponsoring Staatliche Museen zu Berlin Generaldirektion Stauffenbergstraße 41 10785 Berlin, Germany Tel. +49 (0)30 266 42 3400 [email protected]

Dr. Stephan Adam Spokesperson and Head of Communications Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden Head Office Residenzschloss Taschenberg 2 01067 Dresden, Germany Tel: +49 (0)351 4914-2643 [email protected]

Tine Nehler Press Officer and Head of Communications Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen München Kunstareal Barer Str. 29 80779 München, Germany Tel: +49 (0)89 2380 5118 [email protected]