Speeches

Staatsgalerie Stuttgart

Guten Abend meine Damen und Herren,

Ich freue mich sehr, dass ich heute Abend zur Eröffnung der Ausstellung „Neue Welt“ in die Staatsgalerie kommen konnte. Botschafter Timken, der einer der Schirmherren der Ausstellung ist, bedauert es sehr, dass er nicht hier sein kann. Er sendet die besten Wünsche und hat uns versichert, dass er sich die Ausstellung unbedingt noch selbst ansehen möchte.

It is a great pleasure to be here tonight, and it is an honor to for me to welcome you here to the Staatsgalerie and to the opening of “Neue Welt.”
I am always delighted to visit Stuttgart, and to have the opportunity to visit Stuttgart and to see such a magnificent exhibit as this one is really a double pleasure. Thank you Sean, Christofer, and the entire museum staff for making this evening, and this exhibit, possible.

The paintings you will see tonight are by artists of the Hudson River School, including Albert Bierstadt, Frederic Edwin Church, Thomas Cole, and John Frederick Kensett. Working primarily between 1855 and 1875, these artists painted some of the most memorable landscapes we have ever known. With incredible realism and striking use of light and contrast, their work highlights one of America’s greatest treasures: its wilderness.

Through these paintings, you will see John Trumbull’s incredible Niagara Falls, Frederic Church’s New England forests, Albert Bierstadt’s majestic Rocky Mountains, and pictures, quite literally, of everywhere in between—including many paintings not of the U.S. at all, but of Canada and Europe!
These paintings remind us not only that America is an incredibly diverse country, but also that our entire world is rich with such breathtaking landscapes. Some of the scenes will be very familiar to you, and some surely will not. I hope the exhibit inspires you all to explore and enjoy the breathtaking beauty of the landscapes depicted here.

As we view this marvelous exhibit, we are reminded that our planet is amazingly beautiful and yet alarmingly fragile. Many of the landscapes depicted here look vastly different today than they did in the mid-19th century, when the artists captured their beauty on canvas.

Nevertheless, these paintings do not instill in us a sense of regret for landscapes forever altered, or beauty forever lost. To the contrary, these paintings capture a wonderful moment in American history, when a great deal of our country was unexplored and the possibility of going west filled Americans with excitement—an excitement you can clearly see reflected on these luminous canvases. When artists like Albert Bierstadt, an immigrant from Germany, first traveled west, he did so with a sense of wonder and optimism, and with tremendous hope for the future.

His work and that of his fellow painters of the Hudson River School helped inspire the movement to settle the American West, to establish national parks, and create city parks that we still enjoy today as green oases in an urban landsape. Looking at these paintings today, we are no less moved by the beauty they saw, and no less optimistic about the future of such glorious places.

These paintings also remind us that Germany and the United States have much work to do in order to protect our environment, but, as is clear from this gathering tonight, we share a love for these places, and we share a commitment to protect them.

To Americans, these pictures are iconic images of our country, and nothing could be more American—yet their use of light and atmosphere are clearly influenced by the German romantic tradition, an equally vital part of Germany’s history. Given this cultural collaboration, it is only fitting that Germans and Americans should open this exhibit together. Enjoying the results of such a fruitful collaboration reminds us that we have long been the closest of friends, and that we can achieve many great and beautiful things so long as we continue to work together.

The Department of State and the U.S. diplomatic Mission in Germany are thankful for the excellent cooperation we have enjoyed with the four German-American Institutes in Baden-Württemberg , represented here in Stuttgart by the James F. Byrnes Institute. These institutions, funded to a great extent by your state government, have contributed significantly to promoting cultural exchanges and mutual understanding between our two nations.

Once again, I want to thank Sean Rainbird, Christofer Conrad, and the entire Staatsgalerie for inviting me tonight, and I hope you all enjoy this wonderful exhibit.

Thank you very much.