Museum Frieder Burda
Lichtentaler Allee 8 b
(00)49–(0)7221–39898-0
Baden-Baden
Nature.
Contemporary Art
from the Altana Art Collection
November 8, 2008-
February 8, 2009
Nature. Contemporary art from the Altana Art Collection includes a selection of approximately 80 works by painters such as Georg Baselitz, Herbert Brandl, Franz Gertsch, Roni Horn, Axel Hütte, Alex Katz, Karin Kneffel, Wolfgang Laib, Robert Longo and Markus Lüpertz, showing the variety of ways and methods that 20th and 21st century artists approach the subject of “nature” and man’s relationship to it.
the theme of the collection of the Altana Kulturstiftung, a cultural foundation based in Bad Homburg, is art relating to Nature in a broad sense, including all creation. For the first time, a selection of the collection’s major works leave Bad Homburg to be presented in Museum Frieder Burda. The museum's building with its various views on the surrounding landscape garden of the Lichtentaler Allee, is an ideal venue for such a thematic exhibition. Numerous works relating to the subject of landscape and nature are included in the Frieder Burda Collection. Works by Alex Katz, Georg Baselitz, Karin Kneffel and Heribert C. Ottersbach complement the Altana Art Collection.
Andrea Firmenich, director of the Altana Collection, says “From the very beginning, man, as a thinking creature, felt inclined to reflect on nature and his relationship to it.” And from the very beginning, art has been an important means of expression. After the more romantic view on nature that characterized art throughout the 19th century, artists of the 20th and 21st century concentrate increasingly on endangered nature and man’s interference with it. Yet, the displayed works are of such an salient beauty, that often only on second or third viewing that the hidden criticism of man and an accompanying indignation reveals itself..
Some of the world’s most eminent contemporary painters, feeling the ceaseless up-to-dateness of the topic, dedicated themselves to representation of nature. But artists react to news about climatic change, extinction of endangered species or ruinous exploitation of resources in different ways. The exhibition enables visitors to discover artists’ individual approaches, showing the scope of the subject “nature” in painting, drawing, photography, installation and sculpture.
Initially a collection of the business firm Altana, the Altana Art Collection today comprises approximately 600 works of international contemporary art relating to nature. Since 2007, the collection is in the ownership of Altana Kulturstiftung and unites work by more than 60 artists of different nationalities and practices. Without exception, the works deal with the relationship of man and nature, yet its topics may range from landscapes to single creatures or vegetal details.
Catalogue: To Nature. Altana Art Collection (Wienand, 368 pages, 496 representations, 451 of them coloured, Euro 29,00. Edited by Andrea Firmenich, essays by Astrid Becker, Hannes Böhringer, John von Düffel, Andrea Firmenich, Ludger Honnefelder, Johannes Janssen, Martina Padberg and Cornelia Tschosch), ISBN 978-3-87909-906-1. |
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Norbert Tadeusz, Water lilies, Seerosen, 2002, acrylic on canvas, 130 x 200 cm, ALTANA Kunstsammlung, Bad Homburg, Photo: ALTANA Kunstsammlung, Bad Homburg.
Bill Beckley, Heroine Trade in Afghanistan – Quandahar, 2004, Cibachrome, 205 x 110 cm, ALTANA Kunstsammlung, Bad Homburg, Photo: ALTANA Kunstsammlung, Bad Homburg, © Courtesy Galerie Hans Mayer, Düsseldorf. |
