People Mover: Advance Press on the Anniversary
Exhibition “25”
and on the “Dialog Skulptur“ Show at the
Kunstforum Seligenstadt
Rarely has a Deutsche Bank
Collection show attracted so much advance publicity as “25”. While the
anniversary show marking the 25th year of the Deutsche Bank Collection is
only just opening, the stories and interviews are focusing on the goals
and sustainability of the Bank’s involvement in art. That has partly to do
with the fact that the German media, for instance the Handelsblatt
or the taz, have been reporting more often on corporate social
responsibility. In connection with that, the anniversary offers plenty of
opportunities to look back at Deutsche Bank’s 25-year involvement with
art, via press stories and interviews. Read an article
here and here
.
“People Mover” is the programmatic headline to the article in which
Amanda Coulson looks back at the Collection’s history for the British
magazine Art Review. For her, the social aspect of art in the Bank
is at the center, whereby her opinion is decidedly positive. While an
artist’s life is often associated with poverty, it’s understandable that
people tend to imagine the world of banking as heartless and soulless,
oriented purely on profits: “But for the Collection’s program, exactly the
opposite is true.” Coulson describes the Bank’s pioneering efforts to show
works of art in the workplace; she gathers statements from curators,
bankers and art advisors and leads the reader through the Frankfurt
headquarters. She writes that the fact that the floors of the main
Frankfurt building are not numbered, but rather named after the artists
whose works are displayed on each floor, is an indicator for the Bank’s
sincerity of purpose. And should anyone have doubts about its acquisitions
policy, they should take a look at the quality of the Collection and its
innovative program – and especially at the enthusiasm of the employees.
Ulf Poschart was somewhat more critical in his interview with Dr. Tessen von
Heydebreck in the Welt am Sonntag. As a member of the Board of
Directors of Deutsche Bank, von Heydebreck is responsible for the areas of
art, culture and social affairs, and he answered questions about this
capacity. At the center of debate were less the exhibition at the Deutsche
Guggenheim and more basic questions about commitment to art: “Many artists
are left-leaning to radically left-wing. How is that compatible with DB’s
liberal, capitalist basic understanding of itself? Are there any tensions
or conflicts? Does a federal republic that must transform itself into an
information and scientific society need cultural education?” von
Heydebreck also provided information about the Bank’s total budget for
cultural and social activities, some €70 million. The entire interview can
be found here.
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As director of the Deutsche Bank Collection and curator of
the anniversary show “25” Ariane Grigoteit has had many interview
requests. “The activities of the financial institution with Europe’s
largest corporate art collection, which is now 25 years old, is sending
out ever-more ripples,” states the Kunstzeitung ahead of its interview
with Grigoteit and asks the director of the Collection about art as a
commodity and factor in competitiveness. The Tagesspiegel published an
extensive interview about the concept and realization of the exhibition.
In an interview with Katrin Wittneven, Grigoteit talks about new
acquisitions for the Collection and reveals why art in “the best stock”
for a company. The full interview can be found
here.
The German edition of Architectural Digest (AD)
devoted several pages to the director of the Collection. In an article
titled “The Treasurer”, Ulrich Clewing draws a multifaceted portrait of
Grigoteit that makes clear how much personal commitment her work for the
Deutsche Bank Collection demands: “Whatever. At any rate, the young woman
is known for her persistence. And she knows that gentle diplomacy is often
the best weapon, especially at the Bank. Art, it seems, can only profit
form this.”
From the anniversary show in Berlin back to the
Frankfurt area: the exhibition Dialog Skulptur at the Kunstforum
Seligenstadt devotes itself to the development in sculpture from Classical
Modernism to contemporary art, with some 100 works from the Deutsche Bank
Collection. The presentation of works by artists such as
Max Beckmann,
Joseph Beuys, Bruce
Naumann,
Tony Cragg and
Andrea Zittel met with excited interested among the regional press:
“Deutsche Bank’s art pool contains well-known pieces,” writes Carsten
Müller in the Offenbach Post, and sees the exhibition in
Seligenstadt as a “stroke of luck”. “Rarely does one have the chance to
see pieces from the Collection, now in its 25th year of existence.” Müller
pays particular attention to the thematic focus: “Going against the
general trend towards painting, drawings, sketches, studies and sculptures
are on display that stand in direct relationship to the disciplines or
create thematic relationships with them. At times areas of conflict arise
in the homey but clearly-hung show, which also such the viewer in.” It’s
“not only
Stephan Balkenhol’s sketches and models” that build bridges “between the
genres; Max Beckmann’s sculpture Adam und Eva communicates
congenially with Bildnis der Frau Heidel (1922) as do
Thomas Bayrle’s wall-mounted traffic hell Shift (1994) and
the delicate drawing Continental City (1978), projecting urban
uniformity in the profile of an oversized tire.”
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