Keeping in the present: 300 years at the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett

Uittreksel

"The year 2020 marked the three hundredth anniversary of the Dresden Kupferstich-Kabinett. Dedicated to works on paper, the preeminent museum was formally founded by Augustus the Strong in 1720. Its origins, however, can be traced back to the Kunstkammer, a major cabinet of curiosities established by the rulers of Saxony in the sixteenth century. Today, the Kupferstich-Kabinett's holdings include more than five hundred thousand works from the Middle Ages to the present day. The collection contains drawings and prints, as well as sketchbooks, bound illustrated volumes, miniatures, and paintings on paper. The museum has also been collecting photography since 1898, only a few decades after the invention of the medium. The Kupferstich-Kabinett has always seen itself as a place that engages deeply with the present, in collecting as well as in sharing what has been acquired with visitors. This catalogue offers an overview of the Kupferstich-Kabinett's three-hundred-year history through a selection of masterpieces. The foremost among these is the only known drawing securely attributed to Jan van Eyck. Also represented are the Master of the Playing Cards, Albrecht Dürer, Andrea del Verrocchio, Lucas Cranach the Elder, Rembrandt van Rijn, Giovanni Battista Piranesi, Caspar David Friedrich, Piet Mondrian, A. R. Penck, Georg Baselitz, and Evelyn Richter, among many other artists"--