Chris Ofili, Untitled, 2000, Deutsche Bank Collection
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Martin Eder, Untitled, 2000, Deutsche Bank Collection, Courtesy Galerie Eigen + Art, Leipzig/Berlin / © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2010
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Sylvie Fleury, Mushroom, 2006
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Elizabeth Peyton, Prince Harry and Prince William, 2000, Deutsche Bank Collection
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Anselm Kiefer, le chef d'oeuvre inconnu, 1982, Deutsche Bank Collection © Anselm Kiefer
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Hermann Glöckner, Drei Phasen, 1980, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2010
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Ina Weber, Untitled, 2000, © VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn 2010
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Cornelia Schleime, Untitled, 1995
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Beatriz Milhazes, O Sabado, 2000
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In the reception hall of the Deutsche Bank building in Luxembourg, employees and visitors are welcomed by A.R. Penck's monumental sculpture Delphi Heliotroph. The nine-meter-high bronze was executed in 1992/93 as a commissioned work for the spacious room, which is crowned by a glass dome. Penck's colossal figure seems to symbolize the important role that art plays in the bank building. In the light-flooded hall, there are regular monographic exhibitions of artists from the Deutsche Bank Collection, including Per Kirkeby, Marie-Jo Lafontaine and Gerhard Richter. The current show commemorating the 40th anniversary of Deutsche Bank Luxembourg, however, presents a wide variety artistic positions: Sylvie Fleury's colorful, high-gloss mushroom sculptures meet Anselm Kiefer's myth-laden works on paper; a Kara Walker cut-out silhouette encounters Neo Rauch's enigmatic painting Das geht alles von ihrer Zeit ab (2001). Some of the works on view belong to a set of 600 artworks which Deutsch Bank is giving over to the Städel Museum in Frankfurt on permanent loan. The works will find a place in the extension of the Städel in 2011. Fittingly, Städel director Max Hollein will welcome guests at the opening of 40 Years of Presence.
Many of the works in the exhibition relate to the focuses of the art on exhibit in the Luxembourg bank building. For example, figuration, which featured prominently in the 1980s, is represented in works by Rainer Fetting and Helmut Middendorf. These works will be supplemented by paintings by members of the Cologne-based Mühlheimer Freiheit group, including Walter Dahn and Georg Jiri Dokoupil.
Another focal point of the Luxembourg branch's collection is art from East Germany. Some of these works directly engage with recent history. For example, Corneila Schleime, who comes from the alternative Prenzlauer Berg art scene, deals the East German state security apparatus's monitoring of her activities. Two of her untitled ink drawings are included in the show. They show young girls with oversized pigtails, which trigger memories of childhood yet at the same stand for defiance and rebellion. Hermann Glöckner's works, which show the influence of Constructivism, constitute another counterpoint to the state-decreed social realism in the GDR. The exhibition features a three-part series of folds that look like drafts for his abstract sculptures.
The show also includes numerous works that illustrate the Deutsche Bank's global orientation. Beatriz Milhazes is represented with one of her typical opulent compositions in which the Brazilian painter mixes all kinds of influences: Matisse, Op Art and Pucci dresses with wild patterns reflecting 1960s glamour meet the radiant colors of carnival in Rio. While in his aquarelles the Nigerian-born Young British Artist Chris Ofili picks up on exotic myths of the Expressionist artist group Der Blaue Reiter, Takashi Murakami is inspired by the naïve aesthetics of manga comics.
With first-rate exhibitions such as 40 Years of Presence, Deutsche Bank Luxembourg also arouses the interest of a wide public outside the company for trends in contemporary art. As a result, the building on the Plateau de Kirchberg has become a communicative forum that continually offers people the opportunity to engage with the creative potential of contemporary art.
A.D.
40 Years of Presence, 40 Years of Deutsche Bank Luxemburg, 40 Artists of Deutsche Bank Collection
April 16, 2010 - July 15, 2010
Deutsche Bank Luxembourg
2, Boulevard Konrad Adenauer
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