Our extensive collection of paintings, sculptures and graphic works includes works from the Middle Ages to the present day. It is constantly being expanded through acquisitions to include historical works, artistic positions from the GDR and, in particular, contemporary works that reflect the current art scene in Dresden. In addition to its role as a collection and exhibition centre and forum for art, the Städtische Galerie Dresden is also developing into a place of scholarship. Important archival material on artists, individual works or work contexts is collected, analysed and published.
From classical sculpture to a contemporary mix of materials
Our collection includes important works of Dresden sculpture that offer a fascinating insight into the city's artistic development. As early as the 16th and 17th centuries, for example, the Walther family of sculptors had a decisive influence on this period with their works.
When the sculpture collection was still part of the city museum, it was primarily collected from a historical perspective. It is therefore not surprising that numerous portrait sculptures from the 19th and 20th centuries form an important focus of our collection. There are also striking examples of sculptures from the Historicism, Art Nouveau and Expressive Realism periods. The Lapidarium also contains architectural fragments, some of which are also part of the Städtische Galerie's collection.
However, the focus of the sculpture collection is by no means on looking back to the past. The sculptural holdings are constantly changing through acquisitions and donations that reflect the artistic diversity of sculptural creation in the city of Dresden. Sculptures by young artists are increasingly finding their way into the collection - and with them new materials, content and a previously unknown mix of styles.
Early work by A.R. Penck. The rebellious autodidact
At the end of 2007, the collection grew significantly with the acquisition of the extensive collection of works by the Dresden-born artist rebel A.R. Penck (Ralf Winkler) from the estate of his childhood friend Jürgen Schweinebraden.
The collection comprises around 40 paintings, objects and assemblages as well as a large number of drawings and prints from the time of Penck's artistic beginnings in the 1950s until his departure from the GDR in 1980. This collection forms the basis for a comprehensive examination of Penck's work in his former home town of Dresden. As a result, we have regularly organised exhibitions in the past that have shed light on various aspects of his work, from his early works to his pictorial ideas and the international response to his artistic ideas.
About the artist
Ralf Winkler, born in Dresden in 1939, later known under the pseudonym A.R. Penck, is one of Germany's most internationally renowned artists. After being rejected by several art academies, he proclaimed himself an artist and in the 1960s created an artistic sign language for the depiction of human behaviour that was to make him world-famous. Subsequently, he created the so-called "world" and "system pictures" and developed his "standard" system. From 1971 to 1976, A.R. Penck worked on collective pictures in the "Lücke" group. He was denied public exhibitions in the GDR, while he celebrated successes in West Germany and Western Europe. Penck left the GDR in 1980 and subsequently worked in Cologne, Berlin, London and later mainly in Ireland, where he died in 2017.
A friend and collector
Jürgen Schweinebraden, who assembled the collection of Penck's works, was himself a close friend and patron of the artist. He began collecting works by Ralf Winkler as early as the 1950s and supported him throughout his artistic development. Schweinebraden was also active as an exhibition organiser and publisher and died in Niedenstein in 2022.
