Art Works
The New Art Arrangement at the IBC-C
The art arrangement at the IBC-C, the new Deutsche Bank
headquarters in Frankfurt, presents itself as young and international. The
temporary move from the twin towers offered the possibility to reorganize
the presentation of the Deutsche Bank Collection. The opening at the IBC-C
also marked the debut event of "Art Works," an art program of the Deutsche
Bank Collection featuring an array of new offers for staff and the public.
.
Takashi
Murakami, Smooth Nightmare Drawing, 2000,
Deutsche
Bank Collection
It’s not only the world of finance that has grown increasingly
global; national categorizations have lost their meaning in the art world
as well. Art stars work everywhere around the world, and the young scene
is also interconnected across national borders: phenomena that have also
influenced the art installation in the new temporary headquarters of
Deutsche Bank. "The increased focus on the international art scene at the
newly furnished IBC building reflects the changes at the bank itself,"
explains Friedhelm
Hütte, Global Head of Deutsche
Bank Art, on the occasion of the art collection's initiation ceremony.
And just as the bank has turned to new markets, so too does its art. This
approach is now concentrated under the motto of the bank's new art
program, Art Works. Along with a focus on drawing and photography,
Deutsche Bank Art's educational offers are being further expanded, for
instance with the series 10 x 10, 10-minute lunch lectures on selected
works; artists' talks; and the thematic series Greatest Hits, which
introduces highlights from the collection. The goal is to make the Deutsche
Bank Collection more accessible to the public than ever before.
.
Works
by Katarina Sieverding at the IBC-C
Martin
Liebscher, Vorstand 1, 2005,
Deutsche
Bank Collection
Prior to everything else,
however, Deutsche Bank staff had an opportunity on May 8, 2008, to become
acquainted with the art in the 29-story building on Theodor-Heuss-Allee.
Deutsche Bank Art invited its staff to an opening complete with guided
tours throughout the building. An artist's talk with Martin
Liebscher met with great interest; his panoramic views can be seen on
the first story of the new headquarters along with works by Frank
Darius, Delia Keller,
and Wolfgang Tillmans. The floor
is reserved for the medium of photography, one of the collection's main
points of concentration.
Art
auction during the opening at the IBC-C
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Friedhelm Hütte, Global Head of Deutsch
Bank Art, hands over
the check
to representatives of berami e.V
The
highlight of the event was an auction of limited graphic editions created
for the bank by artists such as Georg
Baselitz, Sigmar
Polke, and Neo
Rauch and open exclusively to staff. Under the direction of Robert van
den Valentyn from the Cologne auction house Van
Ham, a total of 26 works of art went up for bid. Prior to this, staff
already purchased 67 works in an online auction. The bank is donating the
entire proceeds of over 62,450 euros to berami
e.V., a Frankfurt-based association that has been helping immigrants
enter professional life since 1990.
Andreas
Gursky, Singapur Börse I, 1997,
Deutsche
Bank Collection
While the twin towers in
Frankfurt are being refurbished according to ecological requirements into
"Green Towers," the move into the IBC-C provided an opportunity to
rearrange the presentation of the Deutsche Bank Collection. Directly next
to the reception in the foyer of the new building, Andreas
Gursky’s sharply focused tableau Singapore Stock Exchange I
(1997) portrays daily business at one of the world’s international
financial centers. The large-scale work is typical for the building’s new
art installation.While in the old location each of
the 38 floors was dedicated chronologically to individual artists or
important schools of post-war German art, the presentation at the IBC-C is
clearly younger and more international.
Gerhard
Richter, Abstrakt, 26.5.92, 1992,
Deutsche
Bank Collection
Of course, one can find
important works by Joseph Beuys, Markus
Lüpertz, and Gerhard
Richter here. Complementing these, however, are works by Richard
Artschwager, Eva Hesse,
and Maria
Lassnig, artists who have increasingly been attracting the attention
of the younger generation. One of these influential positions is Louise
Bourgeois; only very few artists convert their biography as directly
into their work as the French-born New Yorker. Of central importance to
her work is her own personal family history as well as the themes of
corporeality and sexuality.
Louise
Bourgeois, 10 am is when you come to me, 2006,
Deutsche
Bank Collection
On view at the IBC-C is
Bourgeois' ambiguous series 10 am is when you come to me: the clock
strikes ten, hands grasp out for each other; yet who is encountering whom
here remains as mysterious as whether it's a question of love or violence.
On the other hand, the works of Laura
Owens come across as the extreme opposite to Bourgois' dark, hermetic
cosmos. A lion' head rising above flames of orange and pink, a young girl
dreamily chewing on the end of her pencil: at first sight, the American
artist's images resemble children's book illustrations, folk art, or
Japanese ink drawings. Yet the apparent naivety of her works is deceptive;
they involve complex color compositions that arise in a dialogue with the
history of painting and the modernist tradition.
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