New Museum in Nuremberg

Brief information

The new museum appeared not in an old palace and not in an adapted hall, but in a purpose-built building with a glass facade 100 meters long. This transparent line is important in itself: contemporary art and design are shown here inside a shell that was inserted directly into Nuremberg’s historic center.

The museum opened in April 2000 and brought together two different foundations: the Sammlung Kunst, with works of contemporary art after 1950, and the Sammlung Design, previously associated with Munich’s Neue Sammlung. As a result, the place reads not only as a collection of works, but also as an attempt to place art, product design, and new architecture side by side within the old urban fabric.

What to notice right away

It makes sense to compare three physical elements: the long glass facade, the building’s position in the historic center, and the sculpture garden in the former zwinger. The facade presents the museum as a modern insertion rather than as a continuation of the old development. The zwinger, by contrast, recalls the site’s former defensive function: it is the space between the inner and outer fortress walls.

The sculpture garden is located between the Sterntor and Frauentor gates, just a few steps from the main building. Nine sculptures are exhibited there; among the works mentioned, Ulrich Rückriem’s “Eleven Stone Cubes” in Granit Bleu de Vire is an especially telling example. In this way, the museum unfolds into two neighboring gestures: the glass of the contemporary gallery and the stone of the sculptures in a place where the city’s defenses once operated.