DUSSELDORF, GERMANY - Before K20 closes for about a year and a half on 28th April 2008, the museum on Grabbeplatz ( K20) will present its most important masterpieces in a comprehensive farewell show. Pablo Picasso’s monumental work “Deux femmes nues assises” (1920) from the artist’s classicist period is among these masterpieces. Georges Braque’s Cubist still life “Nature morte, harpe et violon” (1911) and Marc Chagall’s dynamic composition “Le violoniste” (1911) are further indisputable highlights of the exhibition. Wassily Kandinsky’s “Komposition IV” (1911) and Ernst Ludwig Kirchner’s “Mädchen unter Japanschirm” (1909) represent two of the outstanding examples of Expressionist painting. “Die Nacht (1918/19) and “Selbstbildnis mit Sektglas” (1919) bei Max Beckmann also fall into this category.

Among other works, Max Ernst’s brilliant mural “Au premier mot limpide” (1923) and Joan Miró’s “Nu au miroir” (1919) will be chosen from the inventory of Surrealist art. The remarkable collection of colored works by Paul Klee deserves particular mention. His work “Kamel in rhythmischer Baumlandschaft” (1920) and also his late work “heroische Rosen” (1938) are among the essential masterpieces.

Developments in western European art after 1945 will be represented primarily by artists such as Lucio Fontana and Arman. Their pictorial objects will be shown together with Yves Klein’s monochrome works in blue, gold and red.

The large installation “Palazzo Regale” (1985) and other works from the collection with works by Joseph Beuys will be on show. Works by Gerhard Richter, whose cycle “Silikat” (2003) was only recently acquired by Kunstsammlung, will continue to be on display.

Representative key works mark the selection of American art after 1945. Needless to say, this choice will include Jackson Pollock’s drip painting “Number 32” (1950) which represents a milestone in Expressionist painting. This monumental piece will be flanked by two outstanding examples from Pop Art and Minimal Art: the combine painting “Wager” (1957-59) by Robert Rauschenberg and Andy Warhol’s legendary work “Big Torn Campbell’s Soup Can (Black Bean)” (1962). Roy Lichtenstein’s “Big Painting No. 6” (1965) and Frank Stella’s subtle black painting “Delphine and Hippolyte” (1959) will also be shown again.

While K20 is closed a selection of approximately 65 works will be on display in three Japanese cities. Starting in October 2008, masterpieces of classic modernism by Beckmann, Chagall, Max Ernst, Klee, Magritte, Miró, Picasso and others will be shown at the Nogoya City Art Museum and after that at the Bunkamura Museum of Art in Tokyo and also at the Hyogo Prefectural Museum of Art in Kobe. All the works will be back in Düsseldorf in good time in order to prepare for K20’s reopening in November 2009.