In a spectacular and captivating presentation, the National Art Gallery, inaugurated on November 23, 2024, offers a glimpse into the richness, diversity, and patrimonial value of the Brukenthal National Museum's art collections.
The exhibition concept highlights, both comparatively and synchronically, the representative artists of national art, as well as what is specific to the Brukenthal collection: the Transylvanian art collection (one of the richest in the country), featuring pieces of great artistic, scientific, and documentary value from its collections of painting, decorative art (furniture, clothing, jewelry, etc.), sculpture, photography, graphic arts, and more.
Following chronological and stylistic principles, the exhibition marks major moments in Romanian art from the 13th to the 20th centuries, showcasing its originality and its interactions with European art, establishing similarities between the country's geo-cultural regions and across different artistic media. Thus, the paintings form the backbone of the exhibition circuit, enriched by furniture, clothing, jewelry, and accessories, creating vignettes that seem to emerge from the lives of people from bygone eras.
The exhibition route begins with religious art from Transylvania spanning the 13th to 18th centuries, followed by the 18th–19th centuries, a period in which all arts exhibit the characteristics of Baroque, Academicism, Neoclassicism, and Biedermeier movements. A full hall is dedicated to the "Golden Triad" of the founders of modern Romanian painting: Nicolae Grigorescu, Ștefan Luchian and Ioan Andreescu. This is followed by a synchronic presentation of works representing Historicism, Plein Air-ism, and Art Nouveau movements.
The first half of the 20th century (Modernism, Expressionism, Avant-garde) offers the opportunity to encounter works by the most important representatives: Corneliu Michăilescu, Hermann H. Maxy, Hans Mattis-Teutsch, as well as Tonitza, Șirato, Oscar Han, Iosif Iser, N. Dărăscu, I. Theodorescu Sion, and others.
Entirely unique in this presentation are segments dedicated to the Transylvanian Association for Romanian Literature and the Culture of the Romanian People (ASTRA), established in Sibiu in 1861, and the first photographic studios in Romania.

THE BLUE HOUSE
Flanking the Brukenthal Palace on its right side, the Blue House was transformed by baron Lambert von Morringer in a Late Baroque style building (18th c.).
It presents a 15th century foundation.
The Blue House shelters the National Art Gallery (entrance at the second floor of the Brukenthal Palace), a modern multimedia room for conferences and exhibitions and the restoration laboratories.