In Miami, the Berggruen collection meets art from the Americas
· BehindLines newsroom
The Pérez Art Museum Miami's announced programme places the Berggruen collection at the heart of its autumn season. Its exhibition devoted to Picasso, Klee and Matisse is scheduled from 29 October 2026 to 28 February 2027. The idea goes beyond bringing together famous names: European works meet pieces from the American museum's collection.
A personal collection becomes a meeting point
In its announcement, the Miami museum presents nearly 100 works from Berlin's Museum Berggruen, the Berggruen family collection and its own holdings. The ensemble is therefore not described as a loan from a single collection.
Dealer and collector Heinz Berggruen, born in 1914 and deceased in 2007, assembled his works over more than four decades. The American institution highlights his connections with artists and literary circles in post-war Paris.
Paintings, drawings, sculptures, posters, watercolours and collages make up the announced display. The museum says it is dedicating its largest galleries entirely to modern art for the first time.
Connecting histories across the Atlantic
A presentation published on 25 September by the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin sets out another side of the project. Alongside Picasso, Klee, Matisse, Giacometti, Cézanne and Braque, it announces a dialogue with Latin American modernists represented in Miami's collection, including Diego Rivera, Joaquín Torres-García and Wifredo Lam.
The Berlin institution connects this encounter to migration, cultural exchanges and historical upheavals that shaped modern art. It also recalls how exile and personal relationships influenced Berggruen's approach to collecting.
Natalie Zimmer, for Berlin, and Maritza M. Lacayo, for Miami, curate the exhibition. Both announcements come from the organisers: they describe an intention and a schedule. On their own, they cannot establish the quality of the installed display, measure attendance or attest to its reception by the public.