Even as an exhibition of Emily Kam Kngwarray’s work prepared to take off from the National Gallery of Australia to Tate Modern in London, the gallery’s winter season kicked off in fine style on Thursday morning with the media launch of Cézanne to Giacometti: highlights from Museum Berggruen / Neue Nationalgalerie.

The exhibition showcases over 80 works by greats including Paul Cézanne, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Paul Klee and Alberto Giacometti, presented alongside the gallery’s national collection to show how ideas of modern art spread and inspired developments in both European and Australian modernism.

Director of the National Gallery, Nick Mitzevich praised the “connoisseurship” from the Berlin Museum, represented this week in Canberra by Gabriel Montua, head of the Museum Berggruen and the institution’s curator, Natalie Zimmer.

He told those present the exhibition had come about when Nicolas Berggruen, the son of the late Heinz Berggruen on whose collection the exhibition is based, visited Canberra in 2023 to see Body Sculpture, a robotic work of art by Jordan Wolfson, and got talking to Mitzevich about a possible show, which would be possible because of refurbishments taking place at the Berlin museum.

Asked by many people, “Aren’t you bored? Isn’t it the same?”, he said he had no hesitation in answering “no”, describing each different reiteration as “something bespoke.”

In his view, the exhibition here in Canberra is the most meaningful in terms of art history because of the dialogue highlighted between Australian and European artists.

Cézanne to Giacometti, NGA, May 3-September 21.