2008 - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

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In the Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid: the exhibition “Unter Göttern und Menschen” (Among Gods and Men)
All this was an impressive feat. Here, too, the focus was –
and always is – on dialogue, on the reflection of art history
or, as in the case of Kiev and St. Petersburg, on political
history. The exhibitions in Kiev and St. Petersburg were
also an expression of gratitude to the states of the former
Soviet Union for the return of the art treasures to Dresden
50 years ago.
In addition, the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden
also like to play host to foreign partners at home, conducting
joint exhibitions and scientific projects or holding
conferences in Dresden. In 2008 – in addition to the “China
in Dresden in China” events – the Staatliche Kunstsammlung
Dresden hosted guest exhibitions from Israel, Azerbaijan
and Taiwan. This high degree of commitment challenges
the staff to the limits and requires that they are outstandingly
well qualified for the job. Only through immense efforts
was it possible for four museums of the Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen Dresden to hold special exhibitions
abroad at just the same time as the “China Year” in Dresden
reached its climax with the large-scale exhibition “Goldener
Drache – Weißer Adler: Kunst im Dienste der Macht
am Kaiserhof von China und am sächsisch-polnischen Hof
(1644 – 1795)” (Golden Dragon – White Eagle: Art in the
Service of Power at the Imperial Court of China and at the
Saxon-Polish Court [1644 – 1795]).
kiev – madrid – st. Petersburg – Los Angeles
The autumn series of exhibitions abroad was launched by
the Kupferstich-Kabinett, which presented around 80
masterpieces of graphic art by 18th-century Venetian artists
– works which constitute a core section of its holdings
– from mid-September to mid-November in Kiev. It was
the first exhibition by a German museum in the Ukraine
since the revolutionary changes of 1989/90.
Martin Roth attaches particular significance to collaboration
with the Ukraine. The international partnerships of
German museums are primarily focused on Moscow and
St. Petersburg. However, interest should also be directed
towards the other cities of Russia and the CIS states because
of the enormous diversity and high quality of the
collections even outside the major centres of Moscow and
St. Petersburg. This was taken into account not only in the
exhibition in Kiev conceived by the Kupferstich-Kabinett
under the leadership of its Director, Prof. Dr. Wolfgang
Holler, but also in the fact-finding trip by representatives
of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden and other
institutions to important Russian provincial museums,
such as those in Tula, Irkutsk and Nizhni Novgorod.
Another aspect of collaboration with museums not only
in Russia but also in the Ukraine are the issues of looted
art and war losses, in which the primary concerns at