Inventing Myths

This year the cycle will be inaugurated by the National Museum in Warsaw

As part of a new series of exhibitions, “InterNationalgalerie”, the Alte Nationalgalerie will invite national galleries and museums from around the world in the coming years to present their collections in a dedicated space.

In 1876 Emperor Wilhelm I opened the “National-Galerie”, now known as the Alte Nationalgalerie, which has been listed since 1999 on the UNESCO World Heritage List as part of the Museumsinsel Berlin complex. The inscription on the pediment reads “Der deutschen Kunst” (To German Art). Yet the newly opened Nationalgalerie did not exhibit only art made in Germany. Even the donation of banker Wagener, who gave 262 works to the Prussian king and thereby laid the foundations of the Nationalgalerie, included artists from Italy, France, Switzerland and Belgium alongside German ones.

As part of the new series, starting in 2026, the Alte Nationalgalerie will regularly invite national galleries and museums from around the world to present their collections in a dedicated museum space. How do these institutions interpret their historical heritage in order to shape future museum practice? How do they contextualise their collections? In which direction are they developing their future programmes in light of changing issues, needs and challenges? The cycle has the opportunity to begin with the National Museum in Warsaw – one of the largest and oldest Polish museum institutions.

Under the title “Inventing Myths”, the director of the National Museum in Warsaw, Agnieszka Lajus, in consultation with Anette Hüsch, director of the Alte Nationalgalerie, selected eight works that tell the story of the changing cultural and political situation in Poland, of freedom, art and the lives of artists over three centuries – from the 19th century to the present. Among them is “Polish Hamlet – Portrait of Aleksander Wielkopolski” from 1903 by the most important Polish Symbolist painter, Jacek Malczewski (1854–1929).

As part of the exhibition, a free brochure will be published containing an interview and essays by Agnieszka Lajus and Anette Hüsch.

Alte Nationalgalerie – Staatliche Museen, Berlin (Germany)